Domestication-related changes in seed dispersal and pigmentation: Visual selection and functional trait?

Abstract

The development of agriculture is one of the most transformative changes in the history of humankind. Among the most common changes occurring during plant domestication are reductions in seed dispersal and changes in pigmentation. Although there are archaeological records of these processes, the advancement of genomics offers a tool to achieve greater insight into the process of converting wild plants into crops (Smýkal et al., 2018). This involved and resulted in a set of specific phenotypic changes referred to collectively as the domestication syndrome. Recently, less obvious domestication-related modifications have also been identified, including changes in plant biochemistry. These processes are often intertwined. For example, among visible changes, selection for visual appearance such as pigmentation is governed by modulation of specific metabolic pathways. Like genomic tools, the improvement of analytical methods provides the opportunity to reveal metabolomic changes involved in plant domestication.