Unlike maize and wheat, where artificial selection is associated with an almost uniform increase in seed or grain size, domesticated rice exhibits dramatic phenotypic diversity for grain size and shape. Here we clone and characterize
GS3, an evolutionarily important gene controlling grain size in rice. We show that
GS3 is highly expressed in young panicles in both short- and long-grained varieties but is not expressed in leaves or panicles after flowering, and we use genetic transformation to demonstrate that the dominant allele for short grain complements the long-grain phenotype. An association study revealed that a C to A mutation in the second exon of
GS3 (A allele) was associated with enhanced grain length in
Oryza sativa but was absent from other Oryza species. Linkage disequilibrium (LD) was elevated and there was a 95.7% reduction in nucleotide diversity (θ
π) across the gene in accessions carrying the A allele, suggesting positive selection for long grain. Haplotype analysis traced the origin of the long-grain allele to a
Japonica-like ancestor and demonstrated introgression into the
Indica gene pool. This study indicates a critical role for
GS3 in defining the seed morphologies of modern subpopulations of
O. sativa and enhances the potential for genetic manipulation of grain size in rice.SEED size and seed number are the major determinants of crop yield in both the cereals and the grain legumes. Seed size was also a target of artificial selection during domestication, where large seeds are generally favored due to ease of harvesting and enhanced seedling vigor (
Harlan et al. 1972). In rice, traits related to grain size and appearance have a large impact on market value and play a pivotal role in the adoption of new varieties (
Champagne et al. 1999;
Juliano 2003). However, different grain quality traits are prized by different local cultures and cuisines and, unlike other cereals such as wheat, barley, and maize that are sold largely in processed forms, the physical properties of rice grains are immediately obvious to consumers (
Fitzgerald et al. 2009). Thus, rice offers a unique opportunity to investigate the genetics and evolutionary history of seed size and shape.Cultivated rice (
Oryza sativa) was domesticated in Asia from the wild progenitor
O. rufipogon Griff. and/or
O. nivara Sharma (
Ishii et al. 1988;
Oka 1988;
Dally and Second 1990;
Nakano et al. 1992;
Chen et al. 1993). Classical studies of the subpopulation structure of
O. sativa have identified two primary subspecies or varietal groups, namely
Indica and
Japonica (
Oka 1988;
Wang and Tanksley 1989;
Sun et al. 2002). Studies that have dated the divergence between the
Indica and the
Japonica groups indicate that it predates rice domestication by at least 100,000 years (
Ma and Bennetzen 2004;
Vitte et al. 2004;
Zhu and Ge 2005), suggesting that at least two genetically distinct gene pools of
O. rufipogon were cultivated and subsequently domesticated.Isozyme and DNA studies revealed that there is additional genetic structure within these two groups, with three subpopulations composing the
Japonica varietal group (
temperate japonica,
tropical japonica, and
aromatic, written all in lowercase) and two subpopulations composing the
Indica group (
indica and
aus) (
Second 1985;
Glaszmann 1987;
Garris et al. 2005;
Caicedo et al. 2007). While there is great diversity of seed size and shape both within and between the different subpopulations of
O. sativa, each subpopulation is popularly associated with a characteristic seed morphology.
Temperate japonica varieties are known for their short, round grains,
indica and
aus for slender grains, and within the
aromatic subpopulation [hereafter referred to as
Group V varieties, according to the isozyme group designation (
Glaszmann 1987)] the group of
basmati varieties is highly valued for their very long, slender grains (
Juliano and Villareal 1993). Identification of the genes that control the range of seed size variation in rice will offer opportunities to study the evolutionary history and phenotypic diversification of the five subpopulations within
O. sativa and also provide valuable targets for genetic manipulation.In rice, four genes contributing to seed or grain size have been identified and characterized. The first,
grain size 3 (
GS3), was isolated from an
indica ×
indica population and found to encode a novel protein with several conserved domains including a phosphatidylethanolamine-binding protein (PEBP)-like domain, a transmembrane region, a putative tumor necrosis factor receptor/nerve growth factor receptor (TNFR/NGFR) family domain, and a von Willebrand factor type C (VWFC) domain (
Fan et al. 2006). A second gene,
grain weight 2 (
GW2), was found to encode an unknown RING-type protein with E3 ubiquitin ligase activity (
Song et al. 2007). The third,
grain incomplete filling 1 (
GIF1), encodes a cell-wall invertase required for carbon partitioning during early grain filling (
Wang et al. 2008). Finally, the recently characterized
seed width 5 (
SW5) has no apparent homolog in the database but was shown to interact with polyubiquitin in a yeast two-hybrid assay; thus it likely acts in the ubiquitin–proteasome pathway to regulate cell division during seed development (
Shomura et al. 2008;
Weng et al. 2008).Many genes controlling seed size have also been identified in Arabidopsis and tomato, providing a framework for assembling the genetic pathway that determines this trait in dicotyledonous plants (
Chaudhury et al. 2001;
Jofuku et al. 2005;
Ohto et al. 2005;
Sundaresan 2005;
Schruff et al. 2006;
Yoine et al. 2006;
Roxrud et al. 2007;
Li et al. 2008;
Xiao et al. 2008;
Orsi and Tanksley 2009;
Zhou et al. 2009). Several of these genes show maternal control by regulating endosperm and/or ovule development (
Garcia et al. 2003;
Jofuku et al. 2005;
Li et al. 2008;
Ohto et al. 2005;
Xiao et al. 2008).Numerous studies have identified rice QTL associated with grain weight and grain length [
www.gramene.org (
Ni et al. 2009)]. Ten of these studies identified a seed size QTL located in the pericentromeric region of rice chromosome 3, using both inter- and intraspecific crosses (
Li et al. 1997;
Yu et al. 1997;
Redona and Mackill 1998;
Xiao et al. 1998;
Kubo et al. 2001;
Moncada et al. 2001;
Brondani et al. 2002;
Xing et al. 2002;
Thomson et al. 2003;
Li et al. 2004). In interspecific crosses, the wild accessions always contributed the dominant allele for small seed size at this locus. Comparative mapping of QTL controlling seed weight in rice, maize, and sorghum further suggested that orthologous seed size genes at this locus might be associated with domestication in all three crops (
Paterson et al. 1995).In the current study, we used positional cloning and transformation to demonstrate that the
GS3 gene underlies both the
gw3.1 QTL (
Thomson et al. 2003;
Li et al. 2004) and the
lk3 QTL (
Kubo et al. 2001). In transformation experiments, we demonstrated for the first time that the dominant allele for small grain size complements the long-grain phenotype and we characterized the spatial expression patterns of the gene at different developmental stages. We undertook an association analysis to examine the relationship between the alleles at
GS3 and the observed variation for grain length/size in both wild and cultivated rice. Finally, we examined sequence haplotypes across the
GS3 region to look for evidence of selection and to identify the origin of the mutation leading to increased grain length in
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