The genome sequence of African rice (Oryza glaberrima) and evidence for independent domestication.

Authors: Wang, Muhua and Yu, Yeisoo and Haberer, Georg and Marri, Pradeep Reddy and Fan, Chuanzhu and Goicoechea, Jose Luis and Zuccolo, Andrea and Song, Xiang and Kudrna, Dave and Ammiraju, Jetty S S and Cossu, Rosa Maria and Maldonado, Carlos and Chen, Jinfeng and Lee, Seunghee and Sisneros, Nick and de Baynast, Kristi and Golser, Wolfgang and Wissotski, Marina and Kim, Woojin and Sanchez, Paul and Ndjiondjop, Marie-Noelle and Sanni, Kayode and Long, Manyuan and Carney, Judith and Panaud, Olivier and Wicker, Thomas and Machado, Carlos A and Chen, Mingsheng and Mayer, Klaus F X and Rounsley, Steve and Wing, Rod A

The cultivation of rice in Africa dates back more than 3,000 years. Interestingly, African rice is not of the same origin as Asian rice (Oryza sativa L.) but rather is an entirely different species (i.e., Oryza glaberrima Steud.). Here we present a high-quality assembly and annotation of the O. glaberrima genome and detailed analyses of its evolutionary history of domestication and selection. Population genomics analyses of 20 O. glaberrima and 94 Oryza barthii accessions support the hypothesis that O. glaberrima was domesticated in a single region along the Niger river as opposed to noncentric domestication events across Africa. We detected evidence for artificial selection at a genome-wide scale, as well as with a set of O. glaberrima genes orthologous to O. sativa genes that are known to be associated with domestication, thus indicating convergent yet independent selection of a common set of genes during two geographically and culturally distinct domestication processes.

Journal: Nature genetics
DOI: 10.1038/ng.3044
Year: 2014

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