Abstract
African rice (Oryza glaberrima Steud) is one of the two independently domesticated rice species, the other one being Asian rice (Oryza sativa L.). Despite major progress being made in understanding the evolutionary and domestication history of African rice, key outstanding issues remain controversial. There appears to be an underlying difficulty in identifying the domestication centre and number of times the crop has been domesticated. Advances in genomics have provided unprecedented opportunities for understanding the genetic architecture of domestication related traits. For most of the domestication traits, the underlying genes and mutations have been identified. Comparative analysis of domestication genes between Asian and African rice has revealed that the two species went through an independent but convergent evolution process. The genetic and developmental basis of some of the domestic traits are conserved not only between Asian and African rice but also with other domesticated crop species. Analysis of genome data and its interpretation is emerging as a major challenge facing studies of domestication in African rice as key studies continue giving contradictory findings and conclusions. Insights obtained on the domestication of this species are vital for guiding crop improvement efforts.
Highlights
Plant domestication is a key evolutionary event where humans modify plant characteristics genetically by selecting for some preferred and favourable traits
Knowledge of the domestication process is important for guiding crop improvement efforts (Choi et al 2019; Purugganan 2019)
We review the origin and domestication dynamics of African rice focusing on the recent advances in knowledge
Summary
Plant domestication is a key evolutionary event where humans modify plant characteristics genetically by selecting for some preferred and favourable traits. One sub population designated as OB-V, was identified as the progenitor population based on its close genetic relationship with the domesticated species This is sharply disputed by Choi et al (2019) who analyzed whole genome sequence data for about 280 samples of African rice and O. barthii, including those studied by Wang et al, (2014). Another whole genome based study by Veltman et al (2019) found evidence seemingly supporting both the centric and noncentric theories and the authors seem to have been torn on which of the two to support These authors observed a population structure where African rice samples collected from the proposed centre of origin in the Inland River Delta formed one genetic cluster.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
