Superheroes and masterminds of plant domestication

Ainsworth, Natalia Elena Martínez; Tenaillon, Maud I.

doi:10.1016/j.crvi.2016.05.005

Cited by 58 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…The understanding of the origin and domestication of crop species has become a topic of great interest and has advanced importantly through combining approaches from diverse disciplines (Martínez-Ainsworth and Tenaillon, 2016). Papaya represents the third most produced crop in the tropics worldwide and an important source of commercial uses for humans.…”

Section: Final Remarksmentioning

confidence: 99%

Domestication and Genetics of Papaya: A Review

Chávez‐Pesqueira

Núñez‐Farfán

2017

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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A wealth of plant species used by humans for different purposes, but mainly as food, originated and domesticated in the Mesoamerican region. Papaya (Carica papaya) is the third most cultivated tropical crop worldwide, and it has been hypothesized that Mesoamerica is the most likely center of its origin and domestication. In support of it, many wild populations of papaya occur throughout Mesoamerica and hence represent the gene pool of genetic variability for further evolution and future crop management. Despite its importance, a dearth of information exists regarding the status of wild populations of papaya, as compared to the extent of knowledge, and interest, on domesticated varieties. We review the evidence on the extant wild populations of papaya, as well as its origin and distribution. Also, we synthetize what is known on the domestication history of the species, including the domestication syndrome that distinguishes wild and domesticated papayas. Moreover, we make an account of the use of genetic markers to assess genetic diversity of wild and domesticated papaya, and discuss the importance of papaya as the first species with a transgenic cultivar to be released for human consumption, and one that has its complete genome sequenced. Evidence from different disciplines strongly suggest that papaya originated and was domesticated in Mesoamerica, and that wild populations in the region possess, still, high genetic diversity compared to the domesticated papaya. Finally, we outline papaya as an excellent model species for genomic studies that will help gain insight into the domestication process and improvement of papaya and other tropical crops.

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Section: Final Remarksmentioning

confidence: 99%

Domestication and Genetics of Papaya: A Review

Chávez‐Pesqueira

Núñez‐Farfán

2017

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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“…Furthermore, plasticity induced by new field niches may have slowed or even stopped the domestication process, a possibility that finds accord with the slow pace of phenotypic change under cultivation demonstrated in archaeological records for traits in maize, barley, wheat, and rice (2,22,92). Negative NC can also have unintended long-term positive effects, so that, especially with time frames in the hundreds of years and more to which archaeological data are most sensitive, which of the processes most influenced a particular outcome could be ambiguous.…”

Section: Niche Construction Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Archaeobotanical records and genetic studies of living plants are revealing much about the genetic mechanisms and human selection strategies that underwrote and drove these phenotypic transformations (e.g., refs. [1][2][3][20][21][22]. Ever-improving analytic methods for retrieving hard, empirical data from archaeological sites coupled with advances in genetic, genomic, epigenetic, and experimental research on both living and ancient plant specimens are also revising the traditional understandings of the processes and are introducing new mechanisms for them.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With regard to plant domestication, it has long been known that experiments in domestication by the earliest farmers resulted in a constellation of traits found in crop species and not or rarely found in their wild progenitors; collectively, these traits are termed the "domestication syndrome" (20)(21)(22). Common among them are larger seed, fruit, and root/tuber size; nonshattering seed heads; nonbitter fruits and underground organs representing decreased natural physical defense mechanisms; decreased seed dormancy; and increased starch content along with different starch qualities.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Assessing elements of an extended evolutionary synthesis for plant domestication and agricultural origin research

Piperno

2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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The development of agricultural societies, one of the most transformative events in human and ecological history, was made possible by plant and animal domestication. Plant domestication began 12,000–10,000 y ago in a number of major world areas, including the New World tropics, Southwest Asia, and China, during a period of profound global environmental perturbations as the Pleistocene epoch ended and transitioned into the Holocene. Domestication is at its heart an evolutionary process, and for many prehistorians evolutionary theory has been foundational in investigating agricultural origins. Similarly, geneticists working largely with modern crops and their living wild progenitors have documented some of the mechanisms that underwrote phenotypic transformations from wild to domesticated species. Ever-improving analytic methods for retrieval of empirical data from archaeological sites, together with advances in genetic, genomic, epigenetic, and experimental research on living crop plants and wild progenitors, suggest that three fields of study currently little applied to plant domestication processes may be necessary to understand these transformations across a range of species important in early prehistoric agriculture. These fields are phenotypic (developmental) plasticity, niche construction theory, and epigenetics with transgenerational epigenetic inheritance. All are central in a controversy about whether an Extended Evolutionary Synthesis is needed to reconceptualize how evolutionary change occurs. An exploration of their present and potential utility in domestication study shows that all three fields have considerable promise in elucidating important issues in plant domestication and in agricultural origin and dispersal research and should be increasingly applied to these issues.

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“…Overall, most causal sequence variants in domestication or diversification genes have been found to be "nonsense mutations" or have been found to occur in regulatory regions such as the promoter, which causes putative cis-regulatory changes that are usually shown by altered expression [43,67]. Indeed, the largest proportion (43-81%) of domestication genes identified so far are transcriptional regulators [56,68,87]. Changes at the transcriptional level during domestication have been shown in maize compared to teosinte [88] and in tomato [89].…”

Section: Domestication Has Left Signatures Both On Morphological As Wmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Genetic Changes during Crop Domestication

et al. 2018

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Abstract:Humans have domesticated hundreds of plant and animal species as sources of food, fiber, forage, and tools over the past 12,000 years, with manifold effects on both human society and the genetic structure of the domesticated species. The outcomes of crop domestication were shaped by selection driven by human preferences, cultivation practices, and agricultural environments, as well as other population genetic processes flowing from the ensuing reduction in effective population size. It is obvious that any selection imposes a reduction of diversity, favoring preferred genotypes, such as nonshattering seeds or increased palatability. Furthermore, agricultural practices greatly reduced effective population sizes of crops, allowing genetic drift to alter genotype frequencies. Current advances in molecular technologies, particularly of genome sequencing, provide evidence of human selection acting on numerous loci during and after crop domestication. Population-level molecular analyses also enable us to clarify the demographic histories of the domestication process itself, which, together with expanded archaeological studies, can illuminate the origins of crops. Domesticated plant species are found in 160 taxonomic families. Approximately 2500 species have undergone some degree of domestication, and 250 species are considered to be fully domesticated. The evolutionary trajectory from wild to crop species is a complex process. Archaeological records suggest that there was a period of predomestication cultivation while humans first began the deliberate planting of wild stands that had favorable traits. Later, crops likely diversified as they were grown in new areas, sometimes beyond the climatic niche of their wild relatives. However, the speed and level of human intentionality during domestication remains a topic of active discussion. These processes led to the so-called domestication syndrome, that is, a group of traits that can arise through human preferences for ease of harvest and growth advantages under human propagation. These traits included reduced dispersal ability of seeds and fruits, changes to plant structure, and changes to plant defensive characteristics and palatability. Domestication implies the action of selective sweeps on standing genetic variation, as well as new genetic variation introduced via mutation or introgression. Furthermore, genetic bottlenecks during domestication or during founding events as crops moved away from their centers of origin may have further altered gene pools. To date, a few hundred genes and loci have been identified by classical genetic and association mapping as targets of domestication and postdomestication divergence. However, only a few of these have been characterized, and for even fewer is the role of the wild-type allele in natural populations understood. After domestication, only favorable haplotypes are retained around selected genes, which creates a genetic valley with extremely low genetic diversity. These "selective sweeps" can allow mildly deleterious...

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Superheroes and masterminds of plant domestication

Cited by 58 publications

References 31 publications

Domestication and Genetics of Papaya: A Review

Domestication and Genetics of Papaya: A Review

Assessing elements of an extended evolutionary synthesis for plant domestication and agricultural origin research

The Impact of Genetic Changes during Crop Domestication

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