This book focuses on the latest genome sequencing of the 25 wild Oryza species public and
private genomic resources and their impact on genetic improvement research. It also addresses
the untapped reservoir of agronomically important traits in wild Oryza species. Rice is a model
crop plant that is frequently used to address several basic questions in plant biology yet its
wild relatives offer an untapped source of agronomically important alleles that are absent in
the rice gene pool. The genus Oryza is extremely diverse as indicated by a wide range of
chromosome numbers different ploidy levels and genome sizes. After a 13-year gap from the
first sequencing of rice in the 2002 the genomes of 11 wild Oryza species have now been
sequenced and more will follow. These vast genomic resources are extremely useful for
addressing several basic questions on the origin of the genus evolutionary relationships
between the species domestication and environmental adaptation and also help to substantiate
molecular breeding and pre-breeding work to introgress useful characters horizontally from wild
species into cultivated rice.
