INCREASING GRAIN SIZE AND WEIGHT BY CRISPR/CAS9-MEDIATED GS3 GENE EDITING IN BT7 RICE VARIETY

In rice, grain size is one of the most important agronomic traits associated with grain yield and quality. The major quantitative trait loci GS3 play a predominant role in the negative regulation of grain size. In this study, a CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing system was used to simultaneously edit GS3 in a typical indica rice, Bac Thom 7. Through molecular analysis and sequencing, in the T1 generation, we found that gs3 formed longer grain and weight compared with wild-type. In addition, whereas the number of tiller and panicle per plant in gs3 mutant were not affected, plant height, panicle length, and grain number per panicle of some gs3 mutant plants significantly increased compared with wild-type backgrounds. In conclusion, these results indicated that knockout of GS3 could rapidly improve grain size and weight probably have some positive effect on other traits such as grain number per panicle, length of the panicle.