Publication Details

AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS

SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH

biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology

Domestication history and geographical adaptation inferred from a SNP map of African rice

Nature Genetics, Volume 48, No. 9, Year 2016

African rice (Oryza glaberrima Steud.) is a cereal crop species closely related to Asian rice (Oryza sativa L.) but was independently domesticated in West Africa-3,000 years ago. African rice is rarely grown outside sub-Saharan Africa but is of global interest because of its tolerance to abiotic stresses. Here we describe a map of 2.32 million SNPs of African rice from whole-genome resequencing of 93 landraces. Population genomic analysis shows a population bottleneck in this species that began-13,000-15,000 years ago with effective population size reaching its minimum value-3,500 years ago, suggesting a protracted period of population size reduction likely commencing with predomestication management and/or cultivation. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for six salt tolerance traits identify 11 significant loci, 4 of which are within-300 kb of genomic regions that possess signatures of positive selection, suggesting adaptive geographical divergence for salt tolerance in this species.

Statistics
Citations: 139
Authors: 15
Affiliations: 7
Identifiers
Doi: 10.1038/ng.3633
ISSN: 10614036
e-ISSN: 15461718
Study Design
Cross Sectional Study
Study Locations
Multi-countries