title: The puzzle of Italian rice origin and evolution: determining genetic divergence and affinity of rice germplasm from Italy and Asia.
abstract: The characterization of genetic divergence and relationships of a set of germplasm is essential for its efficient applications in crop breeding and understanding of the origin/evolution of crop varieties from a given geographical region. As the largest rice producing country in Europe, Italy holds rice germplasm with abundant genetic diversity. Although Italian rice varieties and the traditional ones in particular have played important roles in rice production and breeding, knowledge concerning the origin and evolution of Italian traditional varieties is still limited. To solve the puzzle of Italian rice origin, we characterized genetic divergence and relationships of 348 rice varieties from Italy and Asia based on the polymorphisms of microsatellite fingerprints. We also included common wild rice O. rufipogon as a reference in the characterization. Results indicated relatively rich genetic diversity (H(e) = 0.63-0.65) in Italian rice varieties. Further analyses revealed a close genetic relationship of the Italian traditional varieties with those from northern China, which provides strong genetic evidence for tracing the possible origin of early established rice varieties in Italy. These findings have significant implications for the rice breeding programs, in which appropriate germplasm can be selected from a given region and utilized for transferring unique genetic traits based on its genetic diversity and evolutionary relationships.
authors.affiliation: Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory for Biodiversity Science and Ecological Engineering, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Xingxing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.forename: Zhuxi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Basso
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sala
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Spada
authors.forename: Fabrizio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Grassi
authors.forename: Bao-Rong
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Lu
mesh_terms: D001208:Asia; D002681:China; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005843:Geography; D007558:Italy; D012275:Oryza / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism