Natural variation in Ghd7.1 plays an important role in grain yield and adaptation in rice

Flowering adaptability of cultivars to growth conditions should be one of the most important targets in crop domestication and selection. We report here the positional cloning of a major pleiotropic QTL, Ghd7.1, which encodes a PSEUDO-RESPONSE REGULATOR 7-like protein. Under long-day conditions, Ghd7.1 greatly delays rice heading and enhances grain productivity.

Although rice is a short-day species, it has a strong adaptability to photoperiod, which has enabled it to grow widely in tropical, subtropical and temperate regions. Currently, the northern limit for rice-farming areas has spread to latitude 50°N, compared to latitude 28°N of its wild ancestor O. rufipogon¹. More than 16 genes/QTLs have been identified as being involved in the photoperiodic flowering pathway in rice^2,3. Ghd7 and Ghd8 are key photoperiodic flowering suppressors that increase grain yield and plant height under long-day (LD) conditions^4,5.

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