Genetic evidence for a second domestication of barley (Hordeum vulgare) east of the Fertile Crescent.
Cereal agriculture originated with the domestication of barley and early forms of wheat in the Fertile Crescent. There has long been speculation that barley was domesticated more than once. We use differences in haplotype frequency among geographic regions at multiple loci to infer at least two domestications of barley; one within the Fertile Crescent and a second 1,500-3,000 km farther east. The Fertile Crescent domestication contributed the majority of diversity in European and American cultivars, whereas the second domestication contributed most of the diversity in barley from Central Asia to the Far East.
Morrell
Peter L
PL
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697-2525, USA. pmorrell@uci.edu
Clegg
Michael T
MT
D000383:Agriculture / Q000266:history*; D001211:Asia, Western; D001483:Base Sequence; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D003710:Demography; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005843:Geography; D006239:Haplotypes / Q000235:genetics; D049690:History, Ancient; D001467:Hordeum / Q000235:genetics*; D008957:Models, Genetic; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA