[Identification of rice allelic mutant and its regulatory role in grain size].

Rice is the world's largest food crop, and its yield and quality are directly related to food security and human health. Grain size, as one of the important factors determining the rice yield, has been widely concerned by breeders and researchers for a long time. To decipher the regulatory mechanism of rice grain size, we obtained a multi-tiller, dwarf, and small-grain mutant by ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS) mutation from the rice cultivar 'Zhonghua 11' ('ZH11'). Genetic analysis indicated that the phenotype of was controlled by a single recessive gene. Using the mutation site map (Mutmap) method, we identified the candidate gene , which encoded a carotenoid cleavage dioxygenase involved in the biosynthesis of strigolactone (SL). The SL content in was significantly lower than that in 'ZH11'. Cytological analysis showed that the grain size of the mutant decreased due to the reductions in the length and width of glume cells. The function of was further verified by the CRISPR/cas9 gene editing technology. The plants with the gene knockout exhibited similar grain size to the mutant. In addition, gene expression analysis showed that the expression levels of multiple grain size-related genes in the mutant changed significantly, suggesting that may interact with other genes regulating grain size. This study provides a new theoretical basis for research on the regulatory mechanism of rice grain size and potential genetic resources for breeding the rice cultivars with high yields.