Seed vigor is an important characteristic of seed quality, and rice cultivars with strong seed vigor are desirable in direct-sowing rice production for optimum stand establishment. In the present study, the quantitative trait loci (QTLs) of three traits for rice seed vigor during the germination stage, including germination rate, final germination percentage, and germination index, were investigated using one recombinant inbred line (RIL) population derived from a cross between japonica Daguandao and indica IR28, and using the multiple interval mapping (MIM) approach. The results show that indica rice presented stronger seed vigor during the germination stage than japonica rice. A total of ten QTLs, and at least five novel alleles, were detected to control rice seed vigor, and the amount of variation (R ²) explained by an individual QTL ranged from 7.5% to 68.5%, with three major QTLs with R ²>20%. Most of the QTLs detected here are likely to coincide with QTLs for seed weight, seed size, or seed dormancy, suggesting that the rice seed vigor might be correlated with seed weight, seed size, and seed dormancy. At least five QTLs are novel alleles with no previous reports of seed vigor genes in rice, and those major or minor QTLs could be used to significantly improve the seed vigor by marker-assisted selection (MAS) in rice.

Grain length, as a critical trait for rice grain size and shape, has a great effect on grain yield and appearance quality. Although several grain size/shape genes have been cloned, the genetic interaction among these genes and the molecular mechanisms of grain size/shape architecture have not yet to be explored. To investigate the genetic interaction between two major grain length loci of rice, GS3 and qGL3, we developed two near-isogenic lines (NILs), NIL-GS3 (GS3/qGL3) and NIL-qgl3 (gs3/qgl3), in the genetic background of 93–11 (gs3/qGL3) by conventional backcrossing and marker-assisted selection (MAS). Another NIL-GS3/qgl3 (GS3/qgl3) was developed by crossing NIL-GS3 with NIL-qgl3 and using MAS. By comparing the grain lengths of 93–11, NIL-GS3, NIL-qgl3 and NIL-GS3/qgl3, we investigated the effects of GS3, qGL3 and GS3 × qGL3 interaction on grain length based on two-way ANOVA. We found that GS3 and qGL3 had additive effects on rice grain length regulation. Comparative analysis of primary panicle transcriptomes in the four NILs revealed that the genes affected by GS3 and qGL3 partially overlapped, and both loci might be involved in brassinosteroid signaling. Our data provide new information to better understand the rice grain length regulation mechanism and help rice breeders improve rice yield and appearance quality by molecular design breeding.

Rice blast is one of the main diseases in rice and can occur in different rice growth stages. Due to the complicated procedure of panicle blast identification and instability of panicle blast infection influenced by the environment, most cloned rice resistance genes are associated with leaf blast. In this study, a rice panicle blast resistance gene, Pb2, was identified by genome-wide association mapping based on the panicle blast resistance phenotypes of 230 Rice Diversity Panel 1 (RDP1) accessions with 700,000 single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. A genome-wide association study identified 18 panicle blast resistance loci (PBRL) within two years, including 9 reported loci and 2 repeated loci (PBRL2 and PBRL13, PBRL10 and PBRL18). Among them, the repeated locus (PBRL10 and PBRL18) was located in chromosome 11. By haplotype and expression analysis, one of the Nucleotide-binding domain and Leucine-rich Repeat (NLR) Pb2 genes was highly conserved in multiple resistant rice cultivars, and its expression was significantly upregulated after rice blast infection. Pb2 encodes a typical NBS-LRR protein with NB-ARC domain and LRR domain. Compared with wild type plants, the transgenic rice of Pb2 showed enhanced resistance to panicle and leaf blast with reduced lesion number. Subcellular localization of Pb2 showed that it is located on plasma membrane, and GUS tissue-staining observation found that Pb2 is highly expressed in grains, leaf tips and stem nodes. The Pb2 transgenic plants showed no difference in agronomic traits with wild type plants. It indicated that Pb2 could be useful for breeding of rice blast resistance.

Rice blast is a worldwide fungal disease that seriously affects the yield and quality of rice. Identification of resistance genes against rice blast disease is one of the effective ways to control this disease. However, panicle blast resistance genes, which are useful in the fields, have rarely been studied due to the difficulty in phenotypic identification and the environmental influences. Here, panicle blast resistance-3 (Pb3) was identified by a genome-wide association study (GWAS) based on the panicle blast resistance phenotypes of 230 Rice Diversity Panel I (RDP-I) accessions with 700,000 single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. A total of 16 panicle blast resistance loci (PBRLs) within three years including one repeated locus PBRL3 located in chromosome 11 were identified. In addition, 7 genes in PBRL3 were identified as candidate genes by haplotype analysis, which showed significant differences between resistant and susceptible varieties. Among them, one nucleotide-binding domain and Leucine-rich Repeat (NLR) gene Pb3 was highly conserved in multiple resistant rice cultivars, and its expression was significantly induced after rice blast inoculation. Evolutionary analysis showed that Pb3 was a typical disease resistance gene containing coiled-coil, NB-ARC, and LRR domains. T-DNA insertion mutants and CRISPR lines of Pb3 showed significantly reduced panicle blast resistance. These results indicate that Pb3 is a panicle blast resistance gene and GWAS is a rapid method for identifying panicle blast resistance in rice.