The cultivation of rice from wild rice plants was the result of three gene mutations, such as less seed shattering, that made it possible for early farmers to harvest greater crop yield.
It is believed that rice cultivation started when ancient hunter-gatherers selected individual wild rice plants that had suitable characteristics for growing food.
This finding sheds light on the early history of rice cultivation but may also contribute to the development of more efficient rice cultivars in the future.
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More on the importance of wild rice and rice domestication:
Rice domestication
This Primer describes the history of rice domestication, the importance of wild relatives of rice for crop improvement, and the domestication of wild species of rice not previously planted by farmers—a new approach called neodomestication.
Wild rice
Although the genetic diversity of cultivated rice is already rich, widening its diversity through its wild relatives is significant, as they possess high-value traits that can help breeders make new rice varieties that can stand up to climate change and other challenges.
Wild parent spawns super salt-tolerant rice
Farmers are set to reclaim salt-ravaged land thanks to a single rice plant born of two unlikely parents that is spawning a new generation of rice that has double the salinity tolerance of other rice.
