Rice tillering is a key to determine plant architecture and yield,particularly in cereal crops.Nitrogen plays a critical role in controlling this trait in monocots,but the underlying molecular mechanisms remain unknown.Here we report that the expression of a peptide transporter gene OsPTR10 enriched in rice outgrowth buds,with its expression accompanying tillering development using Promoter-GUS transgenic plant and Real time-PCR analysis.OsPTR10 expression is regulated by the exogenous N source and hormone treatment.Over-expression of OsPTR10 increases tillering number,plant height,flag leaf length,and biomass within higher amino acid,protein content and total N content in rice.On the other hand,down-regulation of OsPTR10 in a TDNA insertion line(osptr10)and in the OsPTR10-RNAi rice plants had the opposite effect.Furthermore,this gene has the potential to greatly improve level of nitrogen components nutrition in rice grains especially under low and normal nitrogen.It demonstrated that OsPTR10 plays a positive role in promoting tillering number by enhancing nitrogen utilization and cell proliferation.These results support a key role of the OsPTR10 in mediating nitrogen-regulated cell division to control rice tillering and grain yield for rice breeding.