Chinese scientists successfully isolated and cloned a new gene - G32 from a local rice breed in Zhejiang province, which can significantly increase the yield of super rice, according to China's National Rice Research Institute.

Experiments showed that dominant allele GS2 can make China's first two-line hybrid rice super rice breed - "Liangyoupeijiu" 9311 to increase the grain weight by more than 40 percent and increase the yield by more than 14 percent. And after hybridizing with rice breed "Peiai 64S" , it can further increase the yield by 9.5 percent, compared with "Liangyoupeijiu" breed.

The rice yield is generally determined by three factors, which includes number of panicles, number of the grains per panicle and grain weight. Grain weight can be influenced by grain length, grain width and grain thickness. Currently increasing 1000-grain weight is an effective mean for scientists to increase rice production.

The research team obtained a large grain breed "Baodali" from the National Library of Rice Germplasm in the 1990s. The plant of "Baodali“ is high and strong, with long and big grains. Its 1000-grain weight is over 48 grams. The researchers found that dominant allele GS2 from "Baodalin" may significantly increase the panicle length and grain weight, without changing significantly plant height and tillering, so that GS2 can improve the yield of super rice.

The related research result has been published on the latest issue of the science magazine "Molecular Plant".