Abstract
Results of analyses of the photoperiod response gene (PPD-H1) and simple sequence repeats (SSRs) in modern landraces of cultivated barley were used as evidence for the mechanism of agricultural spread in Neolithic Europe. In particular, we explored the usefulness of considering adaptive genes as indicators of past selective pressures acting on crops, during their spread through Europe. In some areas, such as the Alpine region, Britain and Scandinavia, we have evidence to suggest that the adaptation of crops to certain climatic conditions may have contributed to the timing of agricultural spread. At the northern fringes of Europe, and in higher altitude locations in central Europe, the introduction of more suitably adapted cereals may have facilitated successful agriculture to trigger agricultural expansion. This research opens up the possibility of investigating other genetic adaptations to climate, which would permit a fuller evaluation of the relative contributions of climate/crop and forager/farmer interactions in the process of agricultural spread.
Highlights
Evolutionary studies involving the genetic analysis of recently grown crop plants have tended to focus on the origins and initial domestication of cultivated plants from their wild progenitors (e.g. Heun et al 1997; Badr et al 2000; Özkan et al 2002, 2010; Kilian et al 2007; Luo et al 2007; Morrell and Clegg, 2007; Allaby et al 2008; Jones et al 2008b; Brown et al 2009; Allaby, 2010)
A lack of this adaptation is unlikely to be the cause of a genetic bottleneck in Hungary accounting for a delay in the spread of agriculture at that point. This does not rule out an environmental barrier as an explanation for a delay in the spread of agriculture into central Europe, as other adaptive genes may have been key to the spread of crops into this area, but we have found no convincing evidence that adaptation to increased summer precipitation acted as a barrier to the spread of barley at this frontier
The analysis presented here has argued that it is possible, up to a point, to distinguish recent landrace populations that reflect the initial introduction of cultivated crops during the early spread of Neolithic agriculture through Europe from those that result from mixing due to subsequent crop movements or from later introductions
Summary
Evolutionary studies involving the genetic analysis of recently grown crop plants have tended to focus on the origins and initial domestication of cultivated plants from their wild progenitors (e.g. Heun et al 1997; Badr et al 2000; Özkan et al 2002, 2010; Kilian et al 2007; Luo et al 2007; Morrell and Clegg, 2007; Allaby et al 2008; Jones et al 2008b; Brown et al 2009; Allaby, 2010). The usefulness of similar methods for addressing questions relating to the subsequent spread of agriculture out of its region of origin might be questioned because archaeological and historical sources provide evidence for extensive movement of crops through trade, exchange or population movements since their initial introduction into Europe. Zvelebil and RowleyConwy, 1984, 1986; Bogucki, 1996; Zvelebil and Lillie, 2000), and theories based on the time taken for crops to adapt to novel, or changing, climatic conditions By providing direct evidence for the adaptation of crops to climatic conditions, can potentially shed light on the relative contribution of climatic and cultural factors in determining the rate of agricultural spread in different regions. We present DNA evidence for crop adaptation and spread, based on recently grown plants
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