A change in a single position of a rice plant’s genetic code lets it hold onto grains until harvest, new research suggests. The finding may give scientists new insights into how people domesticated rice, a food eaten daily by about half the world’s population.
Unlike its wild-grass relatives that scatter seeds readily once they ripen, rice plants keep a firm grip on their seeds after they mature. This process enables rice farmers to collect grains easily to replant or process into food.
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Scientists have long known that the capacity to retain grains played a pivotal role in rice domestication, says Tao Sang, a plant geneticist at Michigan State University in East Lansing. However, the genes controlling this phenomenon remained a mystery.
To investigate, Sang and his colleagues compared segments of rice’s DNA with those of several of its wild relatives. The researchers homed in on a single gene on the plants’ chromosome 4. In this gene, the researchers noticed a small difference in the sequence of DNA subunits, which go by the letters A, C, T, and G. In one location where the wild relatives have a G, domestic rice has a T.
After the researchers genetically engineered the rice to have a G in that location, their plants released their seeds easily, as their wild relatives do. The researchers report these results in the March 31 Science.
