Resequencing Genomes of Asian Rice Accessions Helps Determine Important Genes

The Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) resequenced the genomes of 40 Asian cultivated rice accessions and 10 wild rice accessions in collaboration with research bodies such as the CAS Institute of Botany, Berkley University and Cornell University. The data provides molecular markers for rice breeding and helps identify agronomically important genes in rice. The paper entitled "Resequencing 50 accessions of cultivated and wild rice yields markers for identifying agronomically important genes" was published online in the journal Nature Biotechnology.

The research team was able to identify around 15 million candidate single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and high-quality SNPs. Its discovery represents the largest high-quality SNP data set ever obtained in rice. About 71.6% of these SNPs were also found in wild rice accessions, indicating that most genetic variation in cultivated rice is derived from the variation in wild rice. The paper noted that two major rice subspecies japonica and indica were independently domesticated.

Access the abstract of the paper at www.nature.com/nbt/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nbt.2050.html)