The present invention relates to the application of the QT12
gene in rice to coordinately improve rice quality and yield under natural high-temperature field environments. Map-based
cloning identified the QT12
gene. High-expression alleles under high temperature disrupt the
homeostasis of
endosperm storage substances and negatively regulate the
heat tolerance of rice quality. Large-scale field high-temperature experiments showed that non-functional or weak-functional QT12 not only confers stronger
heat tolerance on quality traits such as low chalkiness, high
storage protein, and low
amylose content in rice grains, but also significantly increases the seed setting rate and plot yield. The G / A variation within indica rice and the 6-bp
insertion / deletion variation between indica and
japonica rice explain the genetic basis of
heat tolerance differences within indica rice and between indica and
japonica rice, such that the A variation within indica rice has lower expression and higher heat tolerance compared to G, or the deletion of 6 bp within indica rice has lower expression and higher heat tolerance compared to the
insertion of 6 bp within
japonica rice, which is of great significance for breaking through the breeding
bottleneck of the contradiction between
crop resistance and growth, and between yield and quality.