Today's white rice is mutation spread by early farmers, researchers say

Researchers at Cornell and elsewhere have determined that 97.9 percent of all **white rice** is derived from a mutation (a deletion of DNA) in a **single gene** originating in the Japonica subspecies of rice. Their report, published online in the journal PloS (Public Library of Science) Genetics, suggests that early farmers favored, bred and spread white rice around the world. The researchers report that this predominant **mutation** is also found in the Indica subspecies of white rice. They have found a second independent mutation (a single DNA substitution) in the same gene in several Aus varieties of rice in Bangladesh, accounting for the remaining 2.1 percent of white rice varieties. Neither of these two mutations is found in any **wild red rice** species.... Whole article on "checkbiotech":[ http://www.checkbiotech.org/green_News_Genetics.aspx?infoId=15391]

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