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The Evolution of Crops and Domestication Syndrome
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The Evolution of Crops and Domestication Syndrome

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Genetic Resources".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 June 2024) | Viewed by 7737

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Mariano Ucchesu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institut des Sciences de l’Évolution (ISEM), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) Université Montpellier, UMR 5554, CEDEX 05, 34095 Montpellier, France
Interests: archaeobotany; seed image analysis; crop evolution; agriculture; domestication
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

One of the most debated topics on the origin of the domestication of plants concerns the timing of the appearance of the characteristics of domestication syndrome. One of the factors that differentiates domesticated plants from their wild ancestors is domestication syndrome, including symptoms such as increased seed size, loss of dormancy, and the inability to disperse seeds. It is still debated whether these characteristics were brought about by the first farmers through conscious or unconscious crop selection.

This Special Issue of Plants aims to collect archaeobotanical research on the origin, crop evolution, and processes of the domestication of cereals, legumes, fruits and vegetables. We welcome original research papers, methods, reviews, and perspectives able to provide a clearer picture on crops’ domestication and their evolution.

Dr. Mariano Ucchesu
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • crop evolution
  • domestication syndrome
  • cereals
  • pulses
  • fruits

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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15 pages, 1610 KiB  
Article
Unearthing Grape Heritage: Morphological Relationships between Late Bronze–Iron Age Grape Pips and Modern Cultivars
by Mariano Ucchesu, Anna Depalmas, Marco Sarigu, Massimo Gardiman, Andrea Lallai, Franco Meggio, Alessandro Usai and Gianluigi Bacchetta
Plants 2024, 13(13), 1836; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13131836 - 3 Jul 2024
Viewed by 1604
Abstract
The grapevine was one of the earliest domesticated fruit crops and has been cultivated since ancient times. It is considered one of the most important fruit crops worldwide for wine and table grape production. The current grape varieties are the outcome of prolonged [...] Read more.
The grapevine was one of the earliest domesticated fruit crops and has been cultivated since ancient times. It is considered one of the most important fruit crops worldwide for wine and table grape production. The current grape varieties are the outcome of prolonged selection initiated during the domestication process of their wild relative. Recent genetic studies have shed light on the origins of the modern domestic grapevine in western Europe, suggesting that its origin stems from the introgression between eastern domestic grapes and western wild grapes. However, the origin of ancient grapevines remains largely unexplored. In this study, we conducted an extensive analysis of 2228 well-preserved waterlogged archaeological grape pips from two sites in Sardinia (Italy), dated to the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1300–1100 BC) and the Iron Age (4th and 3rd centuries BC). Using morphometrics and linear discriminant analyses, we compared the archaeological grape pips with modern reference collections to differentiate between wild and domestic grape types and to investigate similarities with 330 modern cultivars. Grape pips from the Late Bronze Age displayed a high percentage of similarity with domesticated grapevines, with a small percentage assigned to wild ones, while the majority of grape pips from the Iron Age were classified as domestic. Discriminant analyses revealed that both white and red grape varieties were cultivated during the Late Bronze and Iron Ages, suggesting a high level of diversification in grape cultivation. Furthermore, a high percentage of archaeological grape pips from both periods showed strong similarities with modern cultivars from the Caucasus and Balkans. This suggests that the great diversity of grapevines present in Sardinia could result from interbreeding between western Asian cultivars and local grapevines that began in the Late Bronze Age. Additionally, a substantial proportion of archaeological grape pips exhibited similar morphometric characteristics to two important Mediterranean grape cultivars: “Muscat à petits grains blancs” and “Garnacha”. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Evolution of Crops and Domestication Syndrome)
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9 pages, 1754 KiB  
Communication
A Catalog of GNI-A1 Genes That Regulate Floret Fertility in a Diverse Bread Wheat Collection
by Shun Sakuma, Yoko Yamashita, Takako Suzuki and Shuhei Nasuda
Plants 2024, 13(3), 330; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13030330 - 23 Jan 2024
Viewed by 1133
Abstract
Modifying inflorescence architecture improves grain number and grain weight in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum). Allelic variation in Grain Number Increase 1 (GNI-A1) genes, encoding a homeodomain leucine zipper class I transcription factor, influences grain number and yield. However, allelic [...] Read more.
Modifying inflorescence architecture improves grain number and grain weight in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum). Allelic variation in Grain Number Increase 1 (GNI-A1) genes, encoding a homeodomain leucine zipper class I transcription factor, influences grain number and yield. However, allelic information about GNI-A1 in diverse germplasms remains limited. Here, we investigated GNI-A1 alleles in a panel of 252 diverse bread wheat accessions (NBRP core collection and HRO breeder’s panel) by target resequencing. Cultivars carrying the reduced-function allele (105Y) were predominant in the NBRP panel, whereas the 105N functional allele was the major type in the HRO panel. Cultivars with the 105Y allele were distributed in Asian landraces but not in European genotypes. Association analysis demonstrated that floret fertility, together with grain size, were improved in cultivars in the NBRP core collection carrying the 105Y allele. These results imply that different alleles of GNI-A1 have been locally selected, with the 105Y allele selected in East Asia and the 105N allele selected in Europe. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Evolution of Crops and Domestication Syndrome)
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18 pages, 3467 KiB  
Article
Population Genomics of Domesticated Cucurbita ficifolia Reveals a Recent Bottleneck and Low Gene Flow with Wild Relatives
by Xitlali Aguirre-Dugua, Josué Barrera-Redondo, Jaime Gasca-Pineda, Alejandra Vázquez-Lobo, Andrea López-Camacho, Guillermo Sánchez-de la Vega, Gabriela Castellanos-Morales, Enrique Scheinvar, Erika Aguirre-Planter, Rafael Lira-Saade and Luis E. Eguiarte
Plants 2023, 12(23), 3989; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12233989 - 27 Nov 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1779
Abstract
Cucurbita ficifolia is a squash grown from Mexico to Bolivia. Its ancestor is unknown, but it has limited compatibility with wild xerophytic Cucurbita from Mexico’s highlands. We assembled the reference genome of C. ficifolia and assessed the genetic diversity and historical demography of [...] Read more.
Cucurbita ficifolia is a squash grown from Mexico to Bolivia. Its ancestor is unknown, but it has limited compatibility with wild xerophytic Cucurbita from Mexico’s highlands. We assembled the reference genome of C. ficifolia and assessed the genetic diversity and historical demography of the crop in Mexico with 2524 nuclear single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). We also evaluated the gene flow between C. ficifolia and xerophytic taxa with 6292 nuclear and 440 plastome SNPs from 142 individuals sampled in 58 sites across their area of sympatry. Demographic modelling of C. ficifolia supports an eight-fold decrease in effective population size at about 2409 generations ago (95% CI = 464–12,393), whereas plastome SNPs support the expansion of maternal lineages ca. 1906–3635 years ago. Our results suggest a recent spread of C. ficifolia in Mexico, with high genetic diversity (π = 0.225, FST = 0.074) and inbreeding (FIS = 0.233). Coalescent models suggest low rates of gene flow with C. radicans and C. pedatifolia, whereas ABBA-BABA tests did not detect significant gene flow with wild taxa. Despite the ecogeographic proximity of C. ficifolia and its relatives, this crop persists as a highly isolated lineage of puzzling origin. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Evolution of Crops and Domestication Syndrome)
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14 pages, 1227 KiB  
Perspective
Prehistoric Plant Exploitation and Domestication: An Inspiration for the Science of De Novo Domestication in Present Times
by Kim Henrik Hebelstrup, Aristotelis Azariadis, Adam Cordes, Peter Steen Henriksen and Henrik Brinch-Pedersen
Plants 2023, 12(12), 2310; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12122310 - 14 Jun 2023
Viewed by 2305
Abstract
De novo domestication is a novel trend in plant genetics, where traits of wild or semi-wild species are changed by the use of modern precision breeding techniques so that they conform to modern cultivation. Out of more than 300,000 wild plant species, only [...] Read more.
De novo domestication is a novel trend in plant genetics, where traits of wild or semi-wild species are changed by the use of modern precision breeding techniques so that they conform to modern cultivation. Out of more than 300,000 wild plant species, only a few were fully domesticated by humans in prehistory. Moreover, out of these few domesticated species, less than 10 species dominate world agricultural production by more than 80% today. Much of this limited diversity of crop exploitation by modern humans was defined early in prehistory at the emergence of sedentary agro-pastoral cultures that limited the number of crops evolving a favorable domestication syndrome. However, modern plant genetics have revealed the roadmaps of genetic changes that led to these domestication traits. Based on such observations, plant scientists are now taking steps towards using modern breeding technologies to explore the potential of de novo domestication of plant species that were neglected in the past. We suggest here that in this process of de novo domestication, the study of Late Paleolithic/Late Archaic and Early Neolithic/Early Formative exploration of wild plants and identification of neglected species can help identify the barriers towards domestication. Modern breeding technologies may then assist us to break these barriers in order to perform de novo domestication to increase the crop species diversity of modern agriculture. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Evolution of Crops and Domestication Syndrome)
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