ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Breeding
A novel QTL GSE3.1 regulates grain size and weight in rice
Luojiang Huang 1
Kaiying Wang 1
Jiahao Dong 1
Chenjie Wang 1
Chen Zhou 1
Zhao Li 1
Wenjie Jiao 2
Limin Zhang 3
Minying Dou 2
Nannan Han 1
Baolan Zhang 1
Ran Xu 1
Yunhai Li 2
Zupei Liu 4
1. Sanya Nanfan Research Institute, Hainan University, Sanya, China
2. Key Laboratory of Seed Innovation, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
3. Key Laboratory of Forage and Endemic Crop Biotechnology, Ministry of Education, School of Life Sciences, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, China
4. College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Abstract
Grain size is a crucial agronomic trait that directly determines grain yield. To elucidate molecular mechanisms of grain size control will help breeders develop high-yield varieties. In this study, we report a novel quantitative trait locus (QTL) GRAIN SIZE AND WEIGHT ON CHROMOSOME 3 (GSE3.1) for grain size and weight in rice, which encodes a TONNEAU1-Recruiting Motif family (TRM) protein and positively regulates grain size by promoting cell division. In addition, the GSE3.1 allele from Daligeng (DLG) significantly increases grain size and weight, and further improves grain yield in field plot trials. Thus, our findings demonstrate the molecular mechanism of GSE3.1 in grain size and weight control, suggesting this gene could be a promising target for breeding high-yield varieties in rice.
Summary
Keywords
Grain size, Grain weight, GSE3.1, QTL, rice
Received
09 January 2026
Accepted
20 February 2026
Copyright
© 2026 Huang, Wang, Dong, Wang, Zhou, Li, Jiao, Zhang, Dou, Han, Zhang, Xu, Li and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Luojiang Huang
Disclaimer
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.