Rice traced to single domestication event in China

[Swede]

Depending on how the researchers calibrated their clock, the data point to an origin of domesticated rice around 8,200 years ago. The study indicates that the japonica and indica sub-species split apart from each other about 3,900 years ago.

The team says this is consistent with archaeological evidence for rice domestication in China's Yangtze Valley about 8,000 to 9,000 years ago and the domestication of rice in India's Ganges region about 4,000 years ago.

"As rice was brought in from China to India by traders and migrant farmers, it likely hybridised extensively with local wild rice," said co-author Michael Purugganan, from New York University (NYU).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13266431

[snagglepuss]

1. I bet black sauce was a close second.

:)

[valerief]

2. I never knew it needed to be tamed first. nt

[TheMadMonk]

3. It has to do with yields. To be successfully domesticated a plant...

...has to not only cover the energetic cost of gathering the edible parts (and if necessary preparing them) but also the cost of putting the seed in the ground, as well any nurturing it might need.

For grain crops, its about getting all of the seed in each individual head, and for all plants in a single crop to mature in as short a time frame as possible. A big part of this, I believe, is maintaining an unnatural physical cohesiveness of the seed head.

[intaglio]

4. But I thought she was Dubya's pet

Not some Chinese guys

/sarcasm

[jberryhill]

5. I thought she was born in Atlanta and raised in Colorado /bt