OJGG Releases First Chromosome-Scale Pan-Genome of Wild Rice (Oryza rufipogon)
The Onyx Journal of Genetics & Genomics announces the publication of the first chromosome-scale pan-genome of wild rice, Oryza rufipogon, the closest wild relative of cultivated Asian rice. The study, coordinated by the International Rice Research Institute and involving 24 partner institutions, integrates long-read assemblies of 84 geographically diverse accessions sampled from Nepal to Indonesia.
The pan-genome captures 78,432 structural variants — insertions, deletions, and presence/absence variation — that are absent from the IRGSP-1.0 Nipponbare reference. The authors identify 412 novel loci associated with resistance to bacterial blight, blast, and brown planthopper, including 27 loci that are entirely absent from cultivated germplasm.
All assemblies, annotations, and the interactive pan-genome graph browser are released under the Open Wheat/Rice Data Licence and are accessible without registration. The authors stress that the wild-relative diversity captured here is essential for breeding climate-resilient cultivars and urge in situ conservation of remaining wild populations. The full dataset is available at genetics.onyx-press.org.