基因研究顯示:中國是所有馴化水稻的原產地

The authors of a new scientific study use DNA research to argue that all domesticated rice comes from a single strain that was probably developed in China more than 8,000 years ago.

The study was published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States of America. Its authors break with previous studies that argued the two main strains of domestic rice, indica and japonica, were developed independently at different times and places.

The new findings were reached by resequencing 630 gene fragments on three chromosomes from a wide variety of wild and domesticated rice strains. The researchers found indica and japonica have more in common with each other than either has with wild rice.

The researchers also say their genetic research supports archeological data suggesting that rice was first cultivated in China's Yangtze Valley between 8,200 and 13,500 years ago.

一項新科學研究的作者運用DNA研究論證，所有馴化水稻很可能都起源於8千多年前中國耕種的單一品種。

這項研究發表在這個星期的《美國國家科學院院刊》上。論文的作者們打破了此前的觀點。過去的觀點認爲，馴化水稻起源於秈稻和粳稻兩個在不同時間和地點獨立生長的品種。

這些新的發現來自對大量野生和馴化水稻品種在3個染色體的630個基因段測序。研究人員發現，秈稻和粳稻彼此的相同點多於它們各自與野生水稻的相似處。

研究人員還說，他們的基因研究支持了一些考古數據。這些數據顯示，水稻在8200年到1萬3500年前首次在中國長江流域進行種植。