This invention discloses a method and application for
heterologous overexpression of the ZjUBQ3
gene from jujube trees to increase grain length and thousand-
grain weight in rice, relating to the field of
plant genetic engineering. The coding sequence of the ZjUBQ3
gene was obtained from the jujube variety 'Dongzao' via PCR amplification. This sequence is 1146 bp in length, encoding 381 amino acids composed of five
ubiquitin monomers linked together, and its
nucleotide sequence is shown in SEQ ID NO:1. This sequence was constructed into an overexpression vector and transformed into the rice variety 'Zhonghua 11', achieving
heterologous overexpression of ZjUBQ3 in rice. Experimental results showed that, compared with the
wild type, the transgenic rice lines heterologously overexpressing ZjUBQ3 exhibited significantly increased grain length and thousand-
grain weight, while grain width remained largely unchanged. This invention confirms that the ZjUBQ3
gene from jujube trees has a positive regulatory effect on seed size, providing a valuable new gene resource for
molecular breeding of high-yield and high-quality rice.