Molecular and Evolutionary Analysis of the Hd6 Photoperiod Sensitivity Gene Within Genus Oryza

Heading date determines rice’s adaptation to its area and cropping season. We analyzed the molecular evolution of the Hd6 quantitative trait locus for photoperiod sensitivity in a total of 20 cultivated varieties and wild rice species and found 74 polymorphic sites within its coding region (1,002 bp), of which five were nonsynonymous substitutions. Thus, natural mutations and modifications of the coding region of Hd6 within the genus Oryza have been suppressed during its evolution; this is supported by low Ka (≤0.003) and Ka/Ks (≤0.576) values between species, indicating purifying selection for a protein-coding gene. A nonsynonymous substitution detected in the japonica variety “Nipponbare” (a premature stop codon and nonfunctional allele) was found within only some local Japanese japonica varieties, which suggests that this point mutation happened recently, probably after the introduction of Chinese rice to Japan, and is likely involved in rice adaptation to high latitudes. Phylogenetic analysis and genome divergence using the entire Hd6 genomic region confirmed the current taxonomic sections of Oryza and supported the hypothesis of independent domestication of indica and japonica rice.