Integrating archaeobotany, paleogenetics and historical linguistics may cast more light onto crop domestication: the case of pea (Pisum sativum)

Mikić, Aleksandar; Medović, Aleksandar; Jovanović, Ž.; Stanisavljević, Nemanja

doi:10.1007/s10722-014-0102-9

Cited by 12 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…The archaeological evidence further suggests that the cultivation of pea spread from the Fertile Crescent westwards through the Danube valley, ancient Greece and Rome into Europe. Linguistic evidence additionally backs this suggestion [ 42 ]. During this same period, pea also moved eastward to Persia (now Iran and Afghanistan), India and China [ 27 , 43 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 76%

Molecular Evidence for Two Domestication Events in the Pea Crop

Trněný¹,

Brus

Hradilová

et al. 2018

Genes

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Pea, one of the founder crops from the Near East, has two wild species: Pisum sativum subsp. elatius, with a wide distribution centered in the Mediterranean, and P. fulvum, which is restricted to Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine and Jordan. Using genome wide analysis of 11,343 polymorphic single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on a set of wild P. elatius (134) and P. fulvum (20) and 74 domesticated accessions (64 P. sativum landraces and 10 P. abyssinicum), we demonstrated that domesticated P. sativum and the Ethiopian pea (P. abyssinicum) were derived from different P. elatius genepools. Therefore, pea has at least two domestication events. The analysis does not support a hybrid origin of P. abyssinicum, which was likely introduced into Ethiopia and Yemen followed by eco-geographic adaptation. Both P. sativum and P. abyssinicum share traits that are typical of domestication, such as non-dormant seeds. Non-dormant seeds were also found in several wild P. elatius accessions which could be the result of crop to wild introgression or natural variation that may have been present during pea domestication. A sub-group of P. elatius overlaps with P. sativum landraces. This may be a consequence of bidirectional gene-flow or may suggest that this group of P. elatius is the closest extant wild relative of P. sativum.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 76%

Molecular Evidence for Two Domestication Events in the Pea Crop

Trněný¹,

Brus

Hradilová

et al. 2018

Genes

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“…Integrating the efforts made by archaeobotany, paleogenetics and historical linguistics, relied upon more basic research by archaeology, genomics and comparative linguistics, surely may bring the answers to at least some of the issues presented in this model (Mikić et al 2014a). It may also contribute to answering how human cultures and crop cultures are interrelated and demonstrate that, unlike today and in the beginning, there was no conflict between the evolution of humans and cultivated crops (Szabó 2013).…”

Section: Beginningsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Presence of vetches (Vicia spp.) in agricultural and wild floras of ancient Europe

Mikić

2016

Genet Resour Crop Evol

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Vetches (Vicia spp.) were part of the everyday diet of the modern human Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers at the end of the last Ice Age. Among the major criteria to determine the domestication in vetches and other ancient grain legumes are nondehiscent pods, larger seed size and smooth seed coat. The seeds of bitter vetch [V. ervilia (L.) Willd.] were found among both the earliest findings of wild collected plants from Early Pre-Pottery Neolithic, from 12th millennium BC cal and the storages of domesticated crops of the Near East Neolithic. Vetches entered Europe in its south-east regions and progressed into its interior via Danube. Archaeological findings offer nice examples that confirm the importance vetches had in the primeval agriculture in Europe and its adjacent regions. Apart from the samples of cultivated vetches used either for food or feed or both, there is rich archaobotanical evidence on the wild and weedy vetch species in diverse European ecosystems. Recently the first known success has been obtained in the extraction of ancient DNA from charred bitter vetch seeds. The future research on this subject certainly must make a more detailed map of the paths of the vetch distribution over Europe and, especially, its long-term and essentially important ties with their domestication and distribution in Asia Minor, Near East and North Africa. The initiated research on the vetch ancient DNA should bring more light onto the individual steps of the earliest days of vetch crops. The preliminary historical linguistic analysis assessed two Proto-Indo-European roots associated with vetches, *erEg w (h)-denoting pea, and *weik-meaning to avoid, initially gave the Latin vincīre, meaning to bind, and then vicia, denoting vetches in general. This multidisciplinary approach will hopefully be a useful reminder how widespread and important vetches used to be, as well as a tool for their re-introduction as presently neglected crops into the contemporary European agriculture.

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“…This is most evident if the plant aDNA studies are integrated with the research on ancient human populations, archaeobotany of cultivated plants and historical linguistics assessing the origin and derivation of the ‘agricultural’ vocabulary. Such joint efforts may produce verily seminal discoveries ( Mikić et al, 2014 ), such as casting much more light onto the language spoken by the first farmers in the world ( Diamond and Bellwood, 2003 ), confirming that the bearers of the ‘agricultural revolution’ in Europe were immigrants from Near East ( Haak et al, 2010 ) or making possible to concurrently follow the human migrations and language development ( Balter and Gibbons, 2015 ) and assessing the connections among the well-established ethnolinguistic families at a significantly earlier time than conventionally considered ( Gell-Mann et al, 2009 ; Mikić, 2012 , 2015 ).…”

Section: Plant Adnamentioning

confidence: 99%

The First Attested Extraction of Ancient DNA in Legumes (Fabaceae)

Mikić

2015

Front. Plant Sci.

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Ancient DNA (aDNA) is any DNA extracted from ancient specimens, important for diverse evolutionary researches. The major obstacles in aDNA studies are mutations, contamination and fragmentation. Its studies may be crucial for crop history if integrated with human aDNA research and historical linguistics, both general and relating to agriculture. Legumes (Fabaceae) are one of the richest end economically most important plant families, not only from Neolithic onwards, since they were used as food by Neanderthals and Paleolithic modern man. The idea of extracting and analyzing legume aDNA was considered beneficial for both basic science and applied research, with an emphasis on genetic resources and plant breeding. The first reported successful and attested extraction of the legume aDNA was done from the sample of charred seeds of pea (Pisum sativum) and bitter vetch (Vicia ervilia) from Hissar, southeast Serbia, dated to 1,350–1,000 Before Christ. A modified version of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) method and the commercial kit for DNA extraction QIAGEN DNAesy yielded several ng μl-1 of aDNA of both species and, after the whole genome amplification and with a fragment of nuclear ribosomal DNA gene 26S rDNA, resulted in the detection of the aDNA among the PCR products. A comparative analysis of four informative chloroplast DNA regions (trnSG, trnK, matK, and rbcL) among the modern wild and cultivated pea taxa demonstrated not only that the extracted aDNA was genuine, on the basis of mutation rate, but also that the ancient Hissar pea was most likely an early domesticated crop, related to the modern wild pea of a neighboring region. It is anticipated that this premier extraction of legume aDNA may provide taxonomists with the answers to diverse questions, such as leaf development in legumes, as well as with novel data on the single steps in domesticating legume crops worldwide.

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Integrating archaeobotany, paleogenetics and historical linguistics may cast more light onto crop domestication: the case of pea (Pisum sativum)

Cited by 12 publications

References 29 publications

Molecular Evidence for Two Domestication Events in the Pea Crop

Molecular Evidence for Two Domestication Events in the Pea Crop

Presence of vetches (Vicia spp.) in agricultural and wild floras of ancient Europe

The First Attested Extraction of Ancient DNA in Legumes (Fabaceae)

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