Researchers from the University of Queensland found that all rice variants have two maternal genomes. There are two main categories of rice that were used in this study: wild and domesticated. Domesticated rice is pollenated by the nearby wild rice, which therefore incorporated the wild rice genome into the domestic rice. The maternal lineages are reserved within the seeds, so the researchers looked more closely with them. They found that the seeds contained both genomes from the domesticated rice and the wild rice, but both genomes were maternal, therefore the new rice that will grow from this seed will have two maternal genomes, one domesticated and one wild. I think this is really interesting, especially since rice is a huge portion of the diets of many people around the world. It is really cool to know that rice can become more varied than it already is, and that the rice we eat is a hybrid of domesticated and wild species. Although this new discovery may help with the supplying of food, I hope these rice farmers, especially big corporations, do not over grow rice and overuse the land. Agriculture and livestock, mostly from large corporations that focus on supply and demand more than the quality of what they're producing, is the number one usage of water in the world and leaves a huge carbon footprint. Therefore, I hope the rice industry uses this information and new discovery wisely, because were all affected by this.
https://scitechdaily.com/genetic-heritage-rice-has-many-fathers-but-only-two-mothers/
https://www.oecd.org/agriculture/ministerial/background/notes/4_background_note.pdf
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