Exploitation of Allelic Variation and Superior Haplotypes for OsMIT3 Regulating Tiller Number in Rice

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the staple food for more than 60 % of the population globally and it is consumed in various forms. Increased crop yield under variable climatic circumstances is necessary in light of the world population's rapid growth, yield plateaus, resource depletion, and climate change. In order to overcome these obstacles, novel genes and alleles in the rice gene pool must be found, and unique features like C4 photosynthesis must be modified. The negative effects of climate change, stagnated yields, and diminishing agricultural resources are major obstacles. Tillering is one of the important traits to be considered for increased rice crop production and productivity. The target gene OsMIT3 phenotypically shows higher tillering and is caused by strigolactone deficiency that directly linked to carotenoid biosynthesis pathway, signaling strigolactone genes towards rice tillering. In this study, 100 diverse accessions from Rice 3K-RG panel were selected and analyzed, which shows three significant SNPs and grouped into four haplotypes group with allelic combinations of TAT(H1), ACA(H2), TAA(H3) and ACT(H4). Among the four haplo-group, H3 shows higher mean value for both total number of tillers and productive tillers, which can be further considered as a source of breeding strategy for crop yield.