What happened during domestication of wild to cultivated rice

Abstract

Domestication of crops is one of the greatest inventions of the human race and has played a vital role in the progress of human civilization. Understanding the genetic mechanisms of crop domestication could shed light on its history and would advance crop breeding. Cultivated rice species, which were domesticated from wild rice species, are important food crops worldwide. Morphological traits, physiological characteristics, and ecological adaptability of cultivated rice are very different from those characters of wild rice. In this review, we summarize current knowledge of the genetic mechanisms underlying these differences between wild and cultivated rice and discuss the application of wild rice species in modern breeding.

Keywords

• Oryza genus
• Wild rice
• Cultivated rice
• Domestication