View source for Crop origins and evolution

{{stub}}

The origins of agriculture and domesticated crops are intertwined, and the change from a hunter-gatherer mode to tillage, sowing and harvesting was one of the major technologcal innovations of humankind. This occured some 10,000 years ago in several different locations, and involved the [[domestication]] of wild-relatives of the major crops (see [[History of Agriculture]]).
[[Image:Teosinte_corn.jpg|frame|Over time, selective breeding modifies teosinte's few fruitcases (left) into modern corn's rows of exposed kernels (right). (Photo courtesy of John Doebley.). From: Genetically Modified Corn— Environmental Benefits and Risks Gewin V PLoS Biology Vol. 1, No. 1, e8 doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0000008]]
Domestication involves changes in the genetic makeup and morphological appearance of plants (and animals) but the wild-relatives of crop continue today to be important sources of genetic diversity and of traits for protection of domesticated crops from stress and disease (see [[Plant breeding]]) and to ensure food security. Knowledge of crop origins is thus of considerable practical importance. 

Development today of new crops (such as perennial alternatives of currently used annual staples) has  potential value is helping  meet serious current agricultural challenges such as the need for water use efficiency, better management of land [[salinization]], and [[soil conservation]].

==Tracing the ancestors of crops==
A Swiss botanist, [[Alphonse de Candolle]] started studies of the origins of crops in 1885, and propsed two approaches to anserwing these questions.
The first is identification of the geographical distribution wild-relatives of modern crops, based on careful botanical desriptions and tests for cross-pollination between candidate ancestors and the crop in question.
Second, [[archaeology|archaeological]] studies of provide clues on how and when a transition from hunter-gatherer existence to agriculture occured.

{| {{prettytable}} <hiddentext>generated with [[:de:Wikipedia:Helferlein/VBA-Macro for EXCEL tableconversion]] V14<\hiddentext>
|- style="font-size:12pt;font-weight:bold" align="center" valign="bottom"
| width="400" Height="16.5" | Age of earliest C-14 dated crop remains
| width="135.75" | 
| width="127.5" | 

|-   valign="bottom"
| Height="12.75" | 
 | 
 | 

|- style="font-weight:bold" valign="bottom"
| Height="12.75"  | Location
| align="center" | Crop
| align="center" | Age

|-  valign="bottom"
| Height="12.75"  | 
| align="center" | 
| align="center" | (years before present)

|-  valign="bottom"
| Height="12.75"  | Mesoamerica
 | Squash
| align="center" | 10,000

|-  valign="bottom"
| Height="12.75"  | Mesoamerica
 | Maize
| align="center" | 6,300

|-  valign="bottom"
| Height="12.75"  | Central America
 | Cassava, Dioscorea yam,
| align="center" | 7,000 to 5,000

|-  valign="bottom"
| Height="12.75"  | 
 | arrowroot, maize
| align="center" | 

|-  valign="bottom"
| Height="12.75"  | Fertile Crescent
 | Einkorn wheat
| align="center" | 9,400 to 9,000

|-  valign="bottom"
| Height="12.75"  | Fertile Crescent
 | Lentil
| align="center" | 9,500 to 9,000

|-  valign="bottom"
| Height="12.75"  | Fertile Crescent
 | Flax
| align="center" | 9,200 to 8,500

|-  valign="bottom"
| Height="12.75"  | 
 | 
| align="center" | 

|-  valign="bottom"
| Height="13.5"  | China
 | Rice
| align="center" | 9,000 to 8,000

|}
''(After Paul Gepts, 2003, in Chapter 13 of Plants, Genes and Crop Biotechnology, Chrispeels and Sadava.)''
<br/>

The earliest origins of major crops based on carbon-14 dating, date back around 10,000 years, just after the end of the last ice age. This allows the geographical regions in which crop domestication took place to be identified. 

Six independent centers of crop origin can be nominated <ref>Gepts, P. (2001) Origins of plant agriculture and major crop plants In M. K. Tolba, Ed., ''Our Fragile World:Challenges and Opportunities for Sustainable Development'', EOLSS Publishers, UK, pages 629-637.</ref>):

* '''Mesoamerica''' (Southern Mexico and Northern Central America): Maize, Phaseolus beans, Sweet potato, tomato
* '''The Andes of South America''': Potato, cassava (manioc), pineapple
* '''Southwest Asia''' (including the "Fertile Crescent": Wheat, barley, pea, lentil
* '''The Sahel region''' and Ethiopian highlands of Africa: Sorghum, coffee, melon, watermelon
* '''China''': Asian rice, soybean, adzuki bean, orange, apricot, peach, tea
* '''Southeast Asia''': Cucumber, banana, plantain

==Wheat domestication in the Middle East==

: ''See also [[Wheat]]''
Wheat is a term for a number of related cereals in the genus ''Triticum'' <ref>Hancock, James F. (2004) ''Plant Evolution and the Origin of Crop Species''. CABI Publishing. ISBN 0-85199-685-X.</ref>

The first domesticated wheat  was [[einkorn wheat]], which is cultivated today only as an animal feed in mountainous regions of Spain and Turkey. [[Einkorn]] wheat (''T. monococcum'') is '''diploid''' (2 chromosomes).<ref name=Belderok /> 

There is a second lineage of wheats derived from wild emmer, ''T. dicoccoides'' which includes '''tetraploid''' and '''hexaploid''' wheats. Wild emmer is tetraploid (AABB) result of a hybridization between two diploid wild grasses, ''T. urartu''(AA) and a wild goatgrass ''Ae. speltoides''(BB). The hybridization that formed wild emmer occurred in the wild, long before domestication.<ref name=Hancock />. From emmer were derived tetraploid domesticated emmer (AABB), and the tetraploid durum (AABB) wheats.

Hexaploid (AABBDD) wheats evolved in farmers' fields when wheat cultivation moved to regions south of the Caspian sea. Either emmer or durum wheat hybridized with yet another wild diploid grass in that region (''Aegilops tauschii'' (DD)) to make the [[hexaploid]] (6 chromosomes, AABBDD) wheats, [[spelt]] wheat and [[common wheat|bread wheat]].<ref name=Hancock />

==Rice domestication in Asia and Western Africa==
{{stub}}
: ''See also [[Rice]]''
==Maize and bean domestication in the Americas==
{{stub}}
: ''See also [[Maize]]''
==Genetic events during domestication==
{{stub}}
==New crops by hybridization and polyploidy==
{{stub}}
: ''See also [[Plant breeding]]''
==References==
===Citations===
<references/>

===Further reading===

* {{cite book | author = Damania, A.,J., Valkoun, G. Willcox, and C. Qualset, eds. | title = The Origins of Agriculture and Crop Domestication | edition = 1st ed. | publisher = International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, Aleppo, Syria | year = 1998 | id =  }}
* {{cite book | author = de Candolle, A. | title = Origin of Cultivated Plants | edition = 1sh ed. | publisher = Cambridge, U.K. | year = 1992 | id =  }}
* {{cite book | author = Diamond, Jared | title = Guns, Germs and Steel: A Short History of Everybody for the Last 13,000 Years | edition = 1st ed. | publisher = Vintage | year = 1997 | id = ISBN 0-09-939278-0 }}

* {{cite book | author = Frankel, O. H., A. H. D. Brown, and  J.J. Burdon. | title = The Conservation of Plant Biodiversity | edition = 1st ed. | publisher = Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K. | year = 1995 | id =  }}
*Gepts, Paul. Chapter 13. ''Ten thousand years of crop evolution''. ''In'' {{cite book | author = Chrispeels, Maarten J.; Sadava, David E. (editors) | title = Plants, Genes and Crop Biotechnology | edition = 2th ed. | publisher = Jones and Bartlett | year = 2003 | id = ISBN 0-7637-1586-7 }}

*{{cite book | author = Hancock, J.F. | title = Plant Evolution and the Origin of Crop Species | edition = 2th ed. | publisher = CAB International, Wallingford, UK. | year = 2004 | id =  }}

* {{cite book | author = Harlan J. R. | title = Crops and Man | edition = 2nd ed. | publisher = American Society of Agronomy, Madison, WI | year = 1992 | id =  }}
* Sun, C. et ''al''. (1998) [http://www.carleton.ca/~bgordon/Rice/papers/SUN98.htm From indica and japonica splitting in common wild rice DNA to the origin and evolution of Asian cultivated rice]. ''Agricultural Archaeology'' 1998:21-29
* {{cite book | author = Vavilov, N. I. | title = Five Continents. | edition = | publisher = Rome: International Plant Genetic Resources Institute; St. Petersburg: N. I.Vavilov All-Russian Institute of Plant Industry.| year = 1997 | id =  }}

===External links===
*[http://www.ipgri.cgiar.org/publications/HTMLPublications/47/index.htm  Damania, A. B.,  J. Valkoun G. Willcox C.O. Qualset (1997) The Origins of Agriculture and Crop Domestication, Proceedings of the Harlan Symposium 10-14 May 1997 Aleppo, Syria]

*[http://www.plantsciences.ucdavis.edu/gepts/pb143/pb143.htm  Gepts, Paul, PLB143: Evolution of Crop Plants The origins of agriculture and the domestication of plants Spring Quarter, Department of Agronomy and Range Science, University of California, Davis]

*[http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/288/5471/1602?ijkey=db541724bf63975055a312549115ef53284a9e97&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha  Lev-Yadun, Simcha ,  Gopher, Avi, Abbo, Shahal  (2000) The Cradle of Agriculture. Science 2 June 2000: Vol. 288. no. 5471, pp. 1602 - 1603 DOI: 10.1126/science.288.5471.]

*[http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/extract/98/4/1324 Bruce D. Smith (2001) Documenting plant domestication: The consilience of biological and archaeological approaches PNAS | February 13, 2001 | vol. 98 | no. 4 | 1324-1326]



[[Category:CZ Live]]
[[Category:Agriculture]]
[[Category:Evolution]]
[[Category:Biology]]