Genomic Insights into Southeast Asian weedy rice: Unlocking beneficial gene resources using a pangenome approach

Improving rice performance is crucial due to high demand in low-income regions of Asia and Africa. Rice has lost many adaptive genes due to prolonged domestication, underscoring the need to recover these genes from its relatives. To address this, we developed a 'gene dictionary' from weedy rice, an unwanted relative of domesticated rice. Our dictionary cataloged 73,874 genes from Southeast Asian (SEA) weedy rice, including valuable genes absent in domesticated varieties. This resource helps identify genes that enhance rice performance and serves as a reference for comparing weedy rice across different SEA countries, improving their weedy rice management strategies.