Were Fertile Crescent crop progenitors higher yielding than other wild species that were never domesticated?
Were Fertile Crescent crop progenitors higher yielding than other wild species that were never domesticated?
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DOI：
10.1111/nph.13353
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发表时间：
2015-08
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Osborne CP
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Preece C;Livarda A;Wallace M;Martin G;Charles M;Christin PA;Jones G;Rees M;Osborne CP
在肥沃的新月地区的农业起源期间，狩猎-采集者开发的广泛野生植物物种的范围急剧缩小。植物的这种特化和相关驯化的机制引起了激烈的争论。我们调查了为什么一些物种被驯化而不是另一些物种，以及它们有哪些共同的特征。我们测试了单独种植的谷类和豆类作物的祖先是否比其他野草和豆类产生了更高的产量和更少的谷壳，从而最大化了每种种子的回报，并最大限度地减少了加工时间。我们比较了起源于肥沃新月的物种的收获特征，包括那些有考古证据表明故意收集的物种。出乎意料的是，这两个家族的野生作物祖先既没有更高的谷物产量，也没有更少的谷壳，尽管他们的种子确实更大。此外，与播种量相比，小种子牧草的产量实际上更高。然而，谷物祖先每株种子的数量减少了三倍，这表明种子在植物上的包装方式有很大的不同。这些数据表明，采用大粒祖先种作为作物并不具有内在的产量优势。因此，解释为什么新石器时代的农业是建立在这些物种上的，仍然是一个重要的悬而未决的挑战。
During the origin of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent, the broad spectrum of wild plant species exploited by hunter‐gatherers narrowed dramatically. The mechanisms responsible for this specialization and the associated domestication of plants are intensely debated. We investigated why some species were domesticated rather than others, and which traits they shared. We tested whether the progenitors of cereal and pulse crops, grown individually, produced a higher yield and less chaff than other wild grasses and legumes, thereby maximizing the return per seed planted and minimizing processing time. We compared harvest traits of species originating from the Fertile Crescent, including those for which there is archaeological evidence of deliberate collection. Unexpectedly, wild crop progenitors in both families had neither higher grain yield nor, in grasses, less chaff, although they did have larger seeds. Moreover, small‐seeded grasses actually returned a higher yield relative to the mass of seeds sown. However, cereal progenitors had threefold fewer seeds per plant, representing a major difference in how seeds are packaged on plants. These data suggest that there was no intrinsic yield advantage to adopting large‐seeded progenitor species as crops. Explaining why Neolithic agriculture was founded on these species, therefore, remains an important unresolved challenge.