{"id":21203,"date":"2026-10-13T10:18:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T10:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/?p=21203"},"modified":"2026-10-13T10:18:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T10:18:14","slug":"ancient-people-relied-on-genetic-variation-already-present-in-wild-plants-to-domesticate-crops-like-rice-and-corn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/?p=21203","title":{"rendered":"Ancient people relied on genetic variation already present in wild plants to domesticate crops like rice and corn"},"content":{"rendered":"

AI-rewritten:<\/strong> This is a summary of an article from The Conversation, rewritten by AI (Qwen, running locally) to make it easier to read. The facts come from the original article – read it for the full story.<\/p>\n

The Conversation • Ornob Alam, Postdoctoral Associate in Evolutionary Biology, New York University • October 12, 2026<\/strong><\/div>\n\n

Ancient people in the Lower Yangtze Valley began cultivating wild grass known as *Oryza rufipogon* more than 8,000 years ago. They selected rare plants that did not release their seeds and had upright postures, creating domesticated Asian rice (*Oryza sativa* subspecies japonica). This process involved bringing together traits through selective breeding long before the field of genetics was established. Around 11,700 years ago, people worldwide independently directed the evolution of local crops like maize, wheat, and rice. These domesticated crops supported large, stationary populations by creating food surpluses, which paved the way for modern societies.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Researchers in Michael Purugganan’s lab at New York University study how these crops spread and adapted using genomics. They investigate whether valuable traits were already present in wild plants or emerged only under human selection. While some studies identified key mutations causing domesticated rice to stop releasing seeds, newer research indicates numerous small changes across the genome are also important. The team aims to understand if early farmers intentionally bred desirable plants or if growing crops in modified environments led to slow, inadvertent trait increases.<\/p>\n

New methods allow scientists to estimate mutation ages and track how trait frequencies changed over time without ancient DNA. Recent 2025 studies on corn and adzuki beans showed that mutations linked to domestication traits were often present at low frequencies in wild populations before people cultivated them. For example, a mutation in corn causing exposed kernels dates back more than 40,000 years, long before corn was domesticated about 9,000 years ago. Similarly, adzuki bean mutations began rising thousands of years earlier than fully domesticated varieties appeared.<\/p>\n

In their study on japonica rice, researchers examined over 70 key mutations and found that the gene mutation for nonshattering seeds likely existed in wild ancestors. Its frequency rose over more than 2,000 years starting around 9,000 years ago, matching archaeological records of seed remains from China’s Yangtze Valley. Later innovations, such as cold tolerance emerging about 4,000 years ago, also frequently used preexisting genetic variation. These findings suggest early domestication was a slow, multistage process relying on standing genetic variation rather than entirely new mutations.<\/p>\n

\n

Source:<\/strong> The Conversation • Ornob Alam, Postdoctoral Associate in Evolutionary Biology, New York University • October 12, 2026<\/p>\n

Read the original article at The Conversation →<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AI-rewritten: This is a summary of an article from The Conversation, rewritten by AI (Qwen, running locally) to make it easier to read. The facts come from the original article – read it for the full story. The Conversation • Ornob Alam, Postdoctoral Associate in Evolutionary Biology, New York University • October 12, 2026 Ancient<\/p>\n

READ MORE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-discovery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21203\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}