Adaptation and the Geographic Spread of Crop Species.

Crops are plant species that were domesticated starting about 11,000 years ago from several centers of origin, most prominently the Fertile Crescent, East Asia, and Mesoamerica. From their domestication centers, these crops spread across the globe and had to adapt to differing environments as a result of this dispersal. We discuss broad patterns of crop spread, including the early diffusion of crops associated with the rise and spread of agriculture, the later movement via ancient trading networks, and the exchange between the Old and New Worlds over the last ∼550 years after the European colonization of the Americas.

Ancient DNA genomics and the renaissance of herbaria.

Herbaria are undergoing a renaissance as valuable sources of genomic data for exploring plant evolution, ecology, and diversity. Ancient DNA retrieved from herbarium specimens can provide unprecedented glimpses into past plant communities, their interactions with biotic and abiotic factors, and the genetic changes that have occurred over time. Here, we highlight recent advances in the field of herbarium genomics and discuss the challenges and opportunities of combining data from modern and time-stamped historical specimens.

The International Oryza Map Alignment Project (IOMAP): the Americas-past achievements and future directions.

The wild relatives of rice hold unexplored genetic diversity that can be employed to feed an estimated population of 10 billion by 2050. The Oryza Map Alignment Project (OMAP) initiated in 2003 has provided comprehensive genomic resources for comparative, evolutionary, and functional characterization of the wild relatives of rice, facilitating the cloning of >600 rice genes, including those for grain width (GW5) and submergence tolerance (SUB1A). Following in the footsteps of the original project, the goal of 'IOMAP: the Americas' is to investigate the present and historic genetic diversity of wild Oryza species endemic to the Americas through the sequencing of herbaria and in situ specimens.

Scaling up neodomestication for climate-ready crops.

We can increase the stability of our food systems against environmental variability and climate change by following the footsteps of our ancestors and domesticating edible wild plants. Reinforced by recent advances in comparative genomics and gene editing technologies, neodomestication opens possibilities for a rapid generation of new crops. By starting the candidate selection pipeline with climatic parameters, we orient neodomestication efforts to increase food security against climate change.

Molecular Clocks and Archeogenomics of a Late Period Egyptian Date Palm Leaf Reveal Introgression from Wild Relatives and Add Timestamps on the Domestication.

The date palm, Phoenix dactylifera, has been a cornerstone of Middle Eastern and North African agriculture for millennia. It was first domesticated in the Persian Gulf, and its evolution appears to have been influenced by gene flow from two wild relatives, P. theophrasti, currently restricted to Crete and Turkey, and P.

Isolation, Library Preparation, and Bioinformatic Analysis of Historical and Ancient Plant DNA.

The ability to sequence DNA retrieved from ancient and historical material plays a crucial role in reinforcing evolutionary and anthropological inference. While the focus of the field is largely on analyzing DNA from ancient hominids and other animals, we have also learned from plant ancient DNA (aDNA), in particular, about human farming practices, crop domestication, environment management, species invasion, and adaptation to various environmental conditions. In the following protocols, we outline best practices for plant aDNA isolation, preparation for sequencing, bioinformatic processing, and authentication.

Genomic history and ecology of the geographic spread of rice.

Rice (Oryza sativa) is one of the world's most important food crops, and is comprised largely of japonica and indica subspecies. Here, we reconstruct the history of rice dispersal in Asia using whole-genome sequences of more than 1,400 landraces, coupled with geographic, environmental, archaeobotanical and paleoclimate data. Originating around 9,000 yr ago in the Yangtze Valley, rice diversified into temperate and tropical japonica rice during a global cooling event about 4,200 yr ago.

The origins and adaptation of European potatoes reconstructed from historical genomes.

Potato, one of the most important staple crops, originates from the highlands of the equatorial Andes. There, potatoes propagate vegetatively via tubers under short days, constant throughout the year. After their introduction to Europe in the sixteenth century, potatoes adapted to a shorter growing season and to tuber formation under long days.

The complex geography of domestication of the African rice Oryza glaberrima.

While the domestication history of Asian rice has been extensively studied, details of the evolution of African rice remain elusive. The inner Niger delta has been suggested as the center of origin but molecular data to support this hypothesis is lacking. Here, we present a comprehensive analysis of the evolutionary and domestication history of African rice.

Flax latitudinal adaptation at LuTFL1 altered architecture and promoted fiber production.

After domestication in the Near East around 10,000 years ago several founder crops, flax included, spread to European latitudes. On reaching northerly latitudes the architecture of domesticated flax became more suitable to fiber production over oil, with longer stems, smaller seeds and fewer axillary branches. Latitudinal adaptations in crops typically result in changes in flowering time, often involving the PEBP family of genes that also have the potential to influence plant architecture.

Modulation of ACD6 dependent hyperimmunity by natural alleles of an Arabidopsis thaliana NLR resistance gene.

Plants defend themselves against pathogens by activating an array of immune responses. Unfortunately, immunity programs may also cause unintended collateral damage to the plant itself. The quantitative disease resistance gene ACCELERATED CELL DEATH 6 (ACD6) serves to balance growth and pathogen resistance in natural populations of Arabidopsis thaliana.

Genomic estimation of complex traits reveals ancient maize adaptation to temperate North America.

By 4000 years ago, people had introduced maize to the southwestern United States; full agriculture was established quickly in the lowland deserts but delayed in the temperate highlands for 2000 years. We test if the earliest upland maize was adapted for early flowering, a characteristic of modern temperate maize. We sequenced fifteen 1900-year-old maize cobs from Turkey Pen Shelter in the temperate Southwest.

African genomes illuminate the early history and transition to selfing in .

Over the past 20 y, many studies have examined the history of the plant ecological and molecular model, , in Europe and North America. Although these studies informed us about the recent history of the species, the early history has remained elusive. In a large-scale genomic analysis of African , we sequenced the genomes of 78 modern and herbarium samples from Africa and analyzed these together with over 1,000 previously sequenced Eurasian samples.

Extraction of ultrashort DNA molecules from herbarium specimens.

DNA extracted from herbarium specimens is highly fragmented; therefore, it is crucial to use extraction protocols that retrieve short DNA molecules. Improvements in extraction and DNA library preparation protocols for animal remains have allowed efficient retrieval of molecules shorter than 50 bp. Here, we applied these improvements to DNA extraction protocols for herbarium specimens and evaluated extraction performance by shotgun sequencing, which allows an accurate estimation of the distribution of DNA fragment lengths.

Reinforcing plant evolutionary genomics using ancient DNA.

Improved understanding of ancient DNA (aDNA) biochemical properties coupled with application of next generation sequencing (NGS) methods enabled sequencing and authenticating genomes of historical samples. This advancement ignited a revolution in plant evolutionary genomics by allowing direct observations of past molecular diversity. Analyses of genomes sequenced from temporally distributed samples of Gossypium sp.

Archaeogenomic insights into the adaptation of plants to the human environment: pushing plant-hominin co-evolution back to the Pliocene.

The colonization of the human environment by plants, and the consequent evolution of domesticated forms is increasingly being viewed as a co-evolutionary plant-human process that occurred over a long time period, with evidence for the co-evolutionary relationship between plants and humans reaching ever deeper into the hominin past. This developing view is characterized by a change in emphasis on the drivers of evolution in the case of plants. Rather than individual species being passive recipients of artificial selection pressures and ultimately becoming domesticates, entire plant communities adapted to the human environment.

Using archaeogenomic and computational approaches to unravel the history of local adaptation in crops.

Our understanding of the evolution of domestication has changed radically in the past 10 years, from a relatively simplistic rapid origin scenario to a protracted complex process in which plants adapted to the human environment. The adaptation of plants continued as the human environment changed with the expansion of agriculture from its centres of origin. Using archaeogenomics and computational models, we can observe genome evolution directly and understand how plants adapted to the human environment and the regional conditions to which agriculture expanded.