Identification of a novel gene, osbht, in response to high temperature tolerance at booting stage in rice

Rice is one of the world’s leading food crops, and over 90% of the world’s rice production stems from Asia. In particular, an increase of 1^◦ C in the minimum temperature reduces the quantity of rice by 10%. Therefore, the development of rice varieties that can stably maintain the yield and quality of the rice even under these rapid climate changes is indispensable. In this study, we performed quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping after treatment with heat stress during the booting stage in rice. We performed a QTL analysis using the Cheongcheong/Nagdong double haploid (CNDH) line and identified 19 QTLs during the 2 year analysis. Of these QTL regions, the 2.2 cM region of RM3709–RM11694 on chromosome 1 was shared among the six traits (heading date; culm length; panicle length; number of tiller; 1000 grain weight; and content of chlorophyll) examined. Rice Microsatellite (RM) 3709–RM11694 contained 27 high-temperature-tolerance candidate genes. Among the candidate genes, OsBHT showed a different gene expression level between CNDH75, which is a high-temperature tolerant line, and CNDH11 which is a susceptible line. Although some existing high-temperature-tolerant genes have been reported, OsBHT can be used more effectively for the development of heat tolerance in rice.