Historic manioc genomes illuminate maintenance of diversity under long-lived clonal cultivation.

Manioc-also called cassava and yuca-is among the world's most important crops, originating in South America in the early Holocene. Domestication for its starchy roots involved a near-total shift from sexual to clonal propagation, and almost all manioc worldwide is now grown from stem cuttings. In this work, we analyze 573 new and published genomes, focusing on traditional varieties from the Americas and wild relatives from herbaria, to reveal the effects of this shift to clonality.

Early evidence of avocado domestication from El Gigante Rockshelter, Honduras.

Molecular research suggests that avocados ( Mill.) were domesticated multiple times in the Americas. Seed exchange, hybridization, and cloning have played an essential role across their wild distribution from Mexico to South America to create the modern varieties of today.