The Process of Rice Domestication: A New Model Based on Recent Data

Rice domestication involved a complex process of selection by ancient humans, leading to the development of a new species, Oryza sativa, during the last 10,000 years. Recent rice genome research and the cloning of domestication- related genes have provided novel knowledge about the domestication process, although recent reviews have revealed more complexity than previously suspected. Some of this additional complexity may arise from a poor fit between the new data and previous models. DNA divergence observed in existing landraces, cultivars, and wild relatives can now be determined accurately, so the order of major DNA changes such as single nucleotide polymorphisms during the domestication process can be abducted owing to relatively low mutation rates. Therefore, a new model to explain the selection process during rice domestication, such as the one proposed for further discussion in this paper, is needed to accommodate the new DNA evidence.