Novel sequences, structural variations and gene presence variations of Asian cultivated rice

Genomic diversity within a species genome is the genetic basis of its phenotypic diversity essential for its adaptation to environments. The big picture of the total genetic diversity within Asian cultivated rice has been uncovered since the sequencing of 3,000 rice genomes, including the SNP data publicly available in the SNP-Seek database. Here we report other aspects of the genetic diversity, including rice sequences assembled from over 3,000 accessions but absent in the Nipponbare reference genome, structural variations (SVs) and gene presence/absence variations (PAVs) in 453 accessions with sequencing depth over 20x. Using either SVs or gene PAVs, we were able to reconstruct the population structure of O. sativa, which was consistent with previous result based on SNPs. Moreover, we demonstrated the usefulness of the new data sets by successfully detecting the strong association of the “Green Revolution gene”, sd1, with plant height. Our data provide a more comprehensive view of the genetic diversity within rice, as well as additional genomic resources for research in rice breeding and plant biology.