Abstract:To reveal the regulatory roles of transcription factor OsBTF3 in growth and development of rice, we comparably analyzed the growth and development of the transgenic rice with over-expressed or RNAi-silenced OsBTF3 gene. Results showed that significant increases in chlorophyll content, chloroplast number, photosynthetic rate, leaf size, plant heights and stem internode length were found in T1 generation of transgenic rice lines with the over-expressed gene compared to wild-type control plants, while remarkable decreases in above phenotypes were observed in plants with the RNAi-silenced gene. Over-expression or silencing of transgene OsBTF3 in rice resulted in significant changes in photosynthesis, growth and development of rice. Therefore, OsBTF3 functions as a key regulator in growth and development, and might be potentially used in molecular breeding of rice for improving agronomic traits.