Genomics yields fresh insights on plant domestication: Understanding the process of domestication can help to guide breeding efforts in plants.

Abstract

EMBO Reports (2018) 19: e47153[OpenUrl][1][FREE Full Text][2] The domestication of plants and animals was one of the most important steps for humans towards civilization. It allowed farmers to produce a surplus of food, which freed labour for other tasks such as tool or pottery making. This ever more specialized division of labour along with the increasing need to collect, store and manage food laid the foundation for the first large cities in Egypt and Mesopotamia and the rise of human civilization. There are though important differences between animal and plant domestication even if both occurred over roughly the same time scales, taking off around 11,050 BC by most estimates. While early cultivation of plants might have encouraged husbandry of animals, the two processes were otherwise entirely independent of each other. In the case of animals, early farmers selected primarily for behaviour, while the initial goal for plant domestication was either morphological traits, such as seed or fruit size and plant structure, or physiological ones, such as the timing of germination and fruit ripening. > While early cultivation of plants might have encouraged husbandry of animals, the two processes were otherwise entirely independent of each other. Behavioural traits in animals are largely determined by multiple genes, whereas morphological or physiological traits in plants are often associated with just one or two genes. This has made it much easier to identify those genes associated with plant domestication, according to Dorian Fuller, Coordinator at the University College London Institute of Archaeology, whose research has spanned both plant and animal domestication. “In a population of cereals you can easily control cross‐pollination and, just as Mendel himself did with peas, isolate morphologically distinct genotypes over a few generations, covering just a few years”, he explained. “And domestication in plants is focused on morphological adaptations that are mostly … [1]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DEMBO%2BReports%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Adoi%252F10.15252%252Fembr.201847153%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Apmid%252F30348890%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx [2]: /lookup/ijlink?linkType=FULL&journalCode=embor&resid=19/11/e47153&atom=%2Fembor%2F19%2F11%2Fe47153.atom