Ancient farmers bred white rice

Ithaca, N.Y.-- U.S. researchers say white rice evolved from wild red rice some 10,000 years ago through a mutation spread by early farmers.

The Cornell University report says 97.9 percent of all white rice is derived from a mutation in a single gene originating in the Japonica subspecies of rice.

The report, published online in the journal Public Library of Science Genetics, suggests that ancient farmers actively bred and spread white rice varieties -- first throughout the Himalayan region and then the rest of the world -- because the varieties cooked faster, their hulls were easier to remove compared with red rice, and disease and insects were easier to see amid the white grains, the university said Friday in a release.

Researchers said farmers also may have favored one mutation over the other because it may have produced favorable grains more consistently.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International.