Genome-Wide Association Study Identifies a Plant-Height-Associated Gene in a Population of Commercial Rice Varieties.

Plant height is one of the most crucial components of plant structure. However, due to its complexity, the genetic architecture of rice plant height has not been fully elucidated. In this study, we performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to determine rice plant height using 178 commercial rice varieties and identified 37 loci associated with rice plant height (LAPH). Among these loci, in LAPH2, we identified a polygalacturonase gene, , which was genetically and functionally associated with rice plant height. The rice plant exhibits a super dwarf phenotype when the knockout of the gene occurs via CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology. RNA-Seq analysis indicated that modulates the expression of genes involved in phytohormone metabolism and cell-wall-biosynthesis pathways. Our findings suggest that plays a vital role in controlling rice plant height by regulating cell wall biosynthesis. Given that rice architecture is one of the most critical phenotypes in rice breeding, has potential in rice's molecular design breeding toward an ideal plant height.