Patterns of domestication in the Ethiopian oil‐seed crop noug (Guizotia abyssinica)

Evolutionary Applications

Hannes Dempewolf⁶  Misteru Tesfaye³  Abel Teshome²  Anne D. Bjorkman⁴  Rose L. Andrew⁶  Moira Scascitelli⁶  Scott Black⁶  Endashaw Bekele⁵  Johannes M. M. Engels¹  Quentin C. B. Cronk⁶ 

[1] Bioversity International, Rome, Italy;Department of Plant Breeding, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Alnarp, Sweden;Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, Holetta Agricultural Research Centre, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia;Department of Geography and Biodiversity Research Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada;College of Natural Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia;Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

关键词: agriculture;    compositae;    crop improvement;    domestication;    gene flow;    genetic resource conservation;    local adaptation;   

DOI  :  10.1111/eva.12256

来源: Wiley

【 摘 要 】

Abstract

Noug (Guizotia abyssinica) is a semidomesticated oil-seed crop, which is primarily cultivated in Ethiopia. Unlike its closest crop relative, sunflower, noug has small seeds, small flowering heads, many branches, many flowering heads, and indeterminate flowering, and it shatters in the field. Here, we conducted common garden studies and microsatellite analyses of genetic variation to test whether high levels of crop–wild gene flow and/or unfavorable phenotypic correlations have hindered noug domestication. With the exception of one population, analyses of microsatellite variation failed to detect substantial recent admixture between noug and its wild progenitor. Likewise, only very weak correlations were found between seed mass and the number or size of flowering heads. Thus, noug's ‘atypical’ domestication syndrome does not seem to be a consequence of recent introgression or unfavorable phenotypic correlations. Nonetheless, our data do reveal evidence of local adaptation of noug cultivars to different precipitation regimes, as well as high levels of phenotypic plasticity, which may permit reasonable yields under diverse environmental conditions. Why noug has not been fully domesticated remains a mystery, but perhaps early farmers selected for resilience to episodic drought or untended environments rather than larger seeds. Domestication may also have been slowed by noug's outcrossing mating system.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 The Authors. Evolutionary Applications published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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