Deposition and secretion from roots influences the composition of the microbial communities surrounding them in the rhizosphere, and microbial activities influence the growth and health of the plant. Different host plant genotypes result in differences in those microbial communities. Crop genomes may have a narrow genetic base because of bottlenecks that occurred when domesticated crops were derived from small populations within the progenitor species. Desirable traits influencing root-associated microbial communities might therefore have been lost in the transition from wild species to modern cultivars. To investigate the diversity of bacterial communities associated with wild and cultivated rice, we surveyed a series of plant species and cultivars spanning the Oryza genus, growing them in the same nutrient-poor soil and assessing the bacterial composition of their rhizospheres and the surrounding soil using 16S rDNA sequencing. Root-associated bacterial communities showed small but significant differences dependent on the plant genotype. We found that differences between bacteria associated with differing plant genotypes were only weakly correlated with the phylogenetic distance between the Oryza wild species and cultivars. In ordination plots, domesticated and wild samples could be separated on the basis of their associated bacterial communities. Taxa of the Anaerolineae were overrepresented in wild samples compared to domesticated ones. Certain methanotrophs were overrepresented in the earliest diverged part of the Oryza genus. Bacterial populations associated with the rhizosphere of wild rice species displayed differences with those associated with cultivars, suggesting that root traits selected in domestication could have significant influence on the rhizosphere microbiota composition. Variation within the genus seems to influence the representation of methanotrophs. This suggests that greenhouse emissions from paddy fields could be altered by manipulating plant genotypes through the introgression of wild rice genetic material.

Genebanks provide access to diverse materials for crop improvement. To utilize and evaluate them effectively, core collections, such as the World Rice Core Collection (WRC) in the Genebank at the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, have been developed. Because the WRC consists of 69 accessions with a high degree of genetic diversity, it has been used for >300 projects. To allow deeper investigation of existing WRC data and to further promote research using Genebank rice accessions, we performed whole-genome resequencing of these 69 accessions, examining their sequence variation by mapping against the Oryza sativa ssp. japonica Nipponbare genome. We obtained a total of 2,805,329 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and 357,639 insertion–deletions. Based on the principal component analysis and population structure analysis of these data, the WRC can be classified into three major groups. We applied TASUKE, a multiple genome browser to visualize the different WRC genome sequences, and classified haplotype groups of genes affecting seed characteristics and heading date. TASUKE thus provides access to WRC genotypes as a tool for reverse genetics. We examined the suitability of the compact WRC population for genome-wide association studies (GWASs). Heading date, affected by a large number of quantitative trait loci (QTLs), was not associated with known genes, but several seed-related phenotypes were associated with known genes. Thus, for QTLs of strong effect, the compact WRC performed well in GWAS. This information enables us to understand genetic diversity in 37,000 rice accessions maintained in the Genebank and to find genes associated with different phenotypes.The sequence data have been deposited in DNA Data Bank of Japan Sequence Read Archive (DRA) (Supplementary Table S1).

The Oryza officinalis complex is the largest species group in Oryza, with more than nine species from four continents, and is a tertiary gene pool that can be exploited in breeding programs for the improvement of cultivated rice. Most diploid and tetraploid members of this group have a C genome. Using a new reference C genome for the diploid species Oryza officinalis, and draft genomes for two other C genome diploid species O. eichingeri and O. rhizomatis, we examine the influence of transposable elements on genome structure and provide a detailed phylogeny and evolutionary history of the Oryza C genomes. The O. officinalis genome is 1.6 times larger than the A genome of cultivated O. sativa, mostly due to proliferation of Gypsy type long-terminal repeat (LTR) transposable elements, but overall syntenic relationships are maintained with other Oryza genomes (A, B and F). Draft genome assemblies of the two other C genome diploid species, O. eichingeri and O. rhizomatis, and short-read resequencing of a series of other C genome species and accessions reveal that after the divergence of the C genome progenitor, there was still a substantial degree of variation within the C genome species through proliferation and loss of both DNA and LTR transposable elements. We provide a detailed phylogeny and evolutionary history of the Oryza C genomes, and a genomic resource for the exploitation of the Oryza tertiary gene pool.

Oryza officinalis is an accessible alien donor for genetic improvement of rice. Comparison across a representative panel of Oryza species showed that the wild O. officinalis and cultivated O. sativa ssp. japonica have similar cold tolerance potentials. The possibility that either distinct or similar genetic mechanisms are involved in the low temperature responses of each species was addressed by comparing their transcriptional networks. General similarities were supported by shared transcriptomic signatures indicative of equivalent metabolic, hormonal, and defense status. However, O. officinalis has maintained an elaborate cold-responsive brassinosteroid-regulated BES1-network that appeared to have been fragmented in O. sativa. BES1-network is potentially important for integrating growth-related responses with physiological adjustments and defenses through the protection of photosynthetic machinery and maintenance of stomatal aperture, oxidative defenses, and osmotic adjustment. Equivalent physiological processes are functional in O. sativa but their genetic mechanisms are under the direct control of ABA-dependent, DREB-dependent and/or oxidative-mediated networks uncoupled to BES1. While O. officinalis and O. sativa represent long periods of speciation and domestication, their comparable cold tolerance potentials involve equivalent physiological processes but distinct genetic networks. BES1-network represents a novel attribute of O. officinalis with potential applications in diversifying or complementing other mechanisms in the cultivated germplasm.

Gibberellins (GAs) are labdane-related diterpenoid phytohormones that regulate various aspects of higher plant growth. A biosynthetic intermediate of GAs is ent-kaurene, a tetra-cyclic diterpene that is produced through successive cyclization of geranylgeranyl diphosphate catalyzed by the two distinct monofunctional diterpene synthases—ent-copalyl diphosphate synthase (ent-CPS) and ent-kaurene synthase (KS). Various homologous genes of the two diterpene synthases have been identified in cereals, including rice (Oryza sativa), wheat (Triticum aestivum) and maize (Zea mays), and are believed to have been derived from GA biosynthetic ent-CPS and KS genes through duplication and neofunctionalization. They play roles in specialized metabolism, giving rise to diverse labdane-related diterpenoids for defense because a variety of diterpene synthases generate diverse carbon-skeleton structures. This review mainly describes the diterpene synthase homologs that have been identified and characterized in rice, wheat and maize and shows the evolutionary history of various homologs in rice inferred by comparative genomics studies using wild rice species, such as Oryza rufipogon and Oryza brachyantha. In addition, we introduce labdane-related diterpene synthases in bryophytes and gymnosperms to illuminate the macroscopic evolutionary history of diterpene synthases in the plant kingdom—bifunctional enzymes possessing both CPS and KS activities are present in bryophytes; gymnosperms possess monofunctional CPS and KS responsible for GA biosynthesis and also possess bifunctional diterpene synthases facilitating specialized metabolism for defense.