Integrated phenotypic, phylogenomic, and evolutionary analyses indicate the earlier domestication of Geng upland rice in China

Ensuring food security with finite resources and environmental impacts is a new challenge in sustainable agriculture ( Yu et al., 2022 Yu S. Ali J. Zhou S. Ren G. Xie H. Xu J. Yu X. Zhou F. Peng S. Ma L. et al. From Green Super Rice to green agriculture: reaping the promise of functional genomics research. Mol. Plant. 2022; 15: 9-26 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (21) Google Scholar ). It is therefore essential to develop suitable rice varieties for resource-saving and environmentally friendly cultivation ( Luo et al., 2019 Luo L. Mei H. Yu X. Xia H. Chen L. Liu H. Zhang A. Xu K. Wei H. Liu G. et al. Water-saving and drought-resistance rice: from the concept to practice and theory. Mol. Breeding. 2019; 39: 145 Crossref Scopus (24) Google Scholar ; Yu et al., 2022 Yu S. Ali J. Zhou S. Ren G. Xie H. Xu J. Yu X. Zhou F. Peng S. Ma L. et al. From Green Super Rice to green agriculture: reaping the promise of functional genomics research. Mol. Plant. 2022; 15: 9-26 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (21) Google Scholar ). Upland rice, which evolves many green characters for rice sustainable cultivation (e.g., drought resistance, the usage efficiency of nitrate, the good capacity of direct seeding, etc.), is therefore an important germplasm in rice breeding ( Luo et al., 2019 Luo L. Mei H. Yu X. Xia H. Chen L. Liu H. Zhang A. Xu K. Wei H. Liu G. et al. Water-saving and drought-resistance rice: from the concept to practice and theory. Mol. Breeding. 2019; 39: 145 Crossref Scopus (24) Google Scholar ). However, the origination and evolution of upland rice, as well as its green genetic resource, remain mysterious ( Xia et al., 2019 Xia H. Luo Z. Xiong J. Ma X. Lou Q. Wei H. Qiu J. Yang H. Liu G. Fan L. et al. Bi-Directional selection in upland rice leads to its adaptive differentiation from lowland rice in drought resistance and productivity. Mol. Plant. 2019; 12: 170-184 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (36) Google Scholar ).