Cover image

Asian domesticated rice (Oryza sativa L.) and its presumed wild ancestor (O. rufipogon) are found sympatrically across rice cultivation regions in Asia. The domesticated rice can occasionally hybridize with wild rice or escape into wild habitat to become feral rice, thus contributing extensive gene flow into the wild rice gene pool. In this issue, a comprehensive analysis of domesticated and wild rice genomes provides evidence that most presumed wild rice is heavily admixed with domesticated rice through both pollen- and seed-mediated gene flow. The cover depicts a typical rice cultivation scene. In the rice paddy, domesticated rice (orange) is closer to the farmers and houses, with wild rice (blue) and admixed plants (blue and orange) dispersing in the vicinity. (Watercolor on Japanese paper by Chenling Xu Antelope, based on a concept by Hongru Wang. [For details, see Wang et al., pp. 1029–1038.])