The biology, phenology and management of Australian weed-camel melon ( Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Matsum. and Nakai)

Shaik, Razia S.; Burrows, Geoffrey E.; Urwin, Nigel; Gopurenko, David; Lepschi, Brendan J.; Weston, Leslie A.

doi:10.1016/j.cropro.2017.03.005

Cited by 6 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…The species was introduced into the Mediterranean region from at least the Roman era, as evidenced by mention in a Latin cookbook ( De Re Coquinaria , ad 77–516) as citrium (Paris, ), and there is archaeological and iconographic evidence that it was a widely used crop all around the Mediterranean and Europe from at least the 14 th century (Paris et al ., ; Paris, ). The species was also introduced to Australia by Afghan cameleers in the mid 1800s to early 1900s, who used its fruits as a feed source for their camels; it is now a weed of summer fallows in Australia (Shaik et al ., ).…”

Section: Time and Place Of Domesticationmentioning

confidence: 97%

Origin and domestication of Cucurbitaceae crops: insights from phylogenies, genomics and archaeology

Chomicki

Schaefer

Renner³

2019

New Phytologist

178

124

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Summary Some of the World's most valuable crops, including watermelon, honey melon, cucumber, squash, zucchini and pumpkin, belong to the family Cucurbitaceae. We review insights on their domestication from new phylogenies, archaeology and genomic studies. Ancestral state estimation on the most complete Cucurbitaceae phylogeny to date suggests that an annual life cycle may have contributed to domestication. Domestication started c. 11 000 years ago in the New World and Asia, and apparently more recently in Africa. Some cucurbit crops were domesticated only once, others multiple times (e.g. melon from different Asian and African populations). Most wild cucurbit fruits are bitter and nonpalatable to humans, and nonbitterness of the pulp apparently was a trait favoured early during domestication, with genomic data showing how bitterness loss was achieved convergently. The genetic pathways underlying lycopene accumulation, red or orange pulp colour, and fruit size and shape are only just beginning to be understood. The study of cucurbit domestication in recent years has benefitted from the increasing integration of archaeological and genomic data with insights from herbarium collections, the most efficient way to understand species’ natural geographic ranges and climate adaptations.

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Section: Time and Place Of Domesticationmentioning

confidence: 97%