Oryza rufipogon India, the Pallikaranai marshland contains the wild rice "Oryza rufipogon", described by the Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON) as a "precious germplasm." Oryza rufipogon Oryza rufipogon, known as brownbeard rice, wild rice, and red rice, is a member of the genus "Oryza". It is native to East, South and Southeast Asia. It has a close evolutionary relation to "Oryza sativa", the plant grown as a major rice food crop throughout the world. "Oryza rufipogon" is an invasive species and listed as a 'noxious weed' by the United States, and also listed as a noxious weed in
Helitron (biology) Helitron (biology) Helitrons are one of the three groups of eukaryotic class 2 transposable elements (TEs) so far described. They are the eukaryotic rolling-circle transposable elements which are hypothesized to transpose by a rolling circle replication mechanism via a single-stranded DNA intermediate. They were first discovered in plants ("Arabidopsis thaliana" and "Oryza sativa") and in the nematode "Caenorhabditis elegans", and now they have been identified in a diverse range of species, from protists to mammals. Helitrons make up a substantial fraction of many genomes where non-autonomous elements frequently outnumber the putative autonomous partner. Helitrons seem to have a major role