Study of the Effect of the <i>Tg1</i> Gene on Grain Quality in Rice

Abstract

To explore the effect of  twin -grain1  ( tg1 ) gene on rice quality, a japonica twin-grain mutant Zhejing 22- tg1  was used as a donor to transfer the  tg1  gene to a large-grain variety SLG. Grain filling rate, rice quality indices and starch granule morphology were compared among Zhejing22, Zhejing22- tg1 , SLG and SLG- tg1 . The effect of the  tg1  on grain quality was analyzed. The new line SLG- tg1  showed increased grain filling rate and significantly improved grain quality including appearance quality, processing quality, cooking taste and nutritional quality. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) observation of starch granules showed that the starch granule structure of SLG- tg1  is much tighter than SLG with multi-sided shape, which meant its good grain quality. Therefore, this study demonstrated that transferring the  tg1  gene could improve grain quality in rice and it provided a reference for breeding new high-quality rice varieties.