Abstract
Cultivated rice varieties are all diploid, and polyploidization of rice has long been desired because of its advantages in genome buffering, vigorousness, and environmental robustness. However, a workable route remains elusive. Here, we describe a practical strategy, namely de novo domestication of wild allotetraploid rice. By screening allotetraploid wild rice inventory, we identified one genotype of Oryza alta (CCDD), polyploid rice 1 (PPR1), and established two important resources for its de novo domestication: (1) an efficient tissue culture, transformation, and genome editing system and (2) a high-quality genome assembly discriminated into two subgenomes of 12 chromosomes apiece. With these resources, we show that six agronomically important traits could be rapidly improved by editing O. alta homologs of the genes controlling these traits in diploid rice. Our results demonstrate the possibility that de novo domesticated allotetraploid rice can be developed into a new staple cereal to strengthen world food security.
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•Establishing efficient transformation and genome editing system in allotetraploid rice•The high-quality assembly of the genome of allotetraploid rice•Identification of O. alta homologs of agronomically important genes from diploid rice•Achieved targeted improvement of various traits in O. alta through genome editing
Li and colleagues developed a breeding route to de novo domestication of wild allotetraploid rice that provides a rational strategy for creating novel crops and generated a series of allotetraploid rice lines edited in domestication-related and agronomically important genes.