title: Tibet is one of the centers of domestication of cultivated barley.
abstract: The Near East Fertile Crescent is well recognized as a primary center of barley origin, diversity, and domestication. A large number of wild barleys have been collected from the Tibetan Plateau, which is characterized by an extreme environment. We used genome-wide diversity array technology markers to analyze the genotypic division between wild barley from the Near East and Tibet. Our results confirmed the existence of Tibetan wild barley and suggested that the split between the wild barleys in the Near East and those in Tibet occurred around 2.76 million years ago (Mya). To test the concept of polyphyletic domestication of barley, we characterized a set of worldwide cultivated barley. Some Chinese hulless and six-rowed barleys showed a close relationship with Tibetan wild barley but showed no common ancestor with other cultivated barley. Our data support the concept of polyphyletic domestication of cultivated barley and indicate that the Tibetan Plateau and its vicinity is one of the centers of domestication of cultivated barley. The current results may be highly significant in exploring the elite germplasm for barley breeding, especially against cold and drought stresses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Agronomy, Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Crop Germplasm,  Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058,  China.
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.forename: Eviatar
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Nevo
authors.forename: Dezhi
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Jordi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Comadran
authors.forename: Meixue
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Long
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.forename: Zhonghua
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Avigdor
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Beiles
authors.forename: Guoxiong
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Guoping
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D001483:Base Sequence; D005075:Biological Evolution; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D005819:Genetic Markers / Q000235:genetics; D014644:Genetic Variation; D018745:Genome, Plant / Q000235:genetics*; D005838:Genotype; D001467:Hordeum / Q000235:genetics*; D008877:Middle East; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D018609:Tibet
chemical_list: D005819:Genetic Markers