title: Genomic analysis of 6,000-year-old cultivated grain illuminates the domestication history of barley.
abstract: The cereal grass barley was domesticated about 10,000 years before the present in the Fertile Crescent and became a founder crop of Neolithic agriculture. Here we report the genome sequences of five 6,000-year-old barley grains excavated at a cave in the Judean Desert close to the Dead Sea. Comparison to whole-exome sequence data from a diversity panel of present-day barley accessions showed the close affinity of ancient samples to extant landraces from the Southern Levant and Egypt, consistent with a proposed origin of domesticated barley in the Upper Jordan Valley. Our findings suggest that barley landraces grown in present-day Israel have not experienced major lineage turnover over the past six millennia, although there is evidence for gene flow between cultivated and sympatric wild populations. We demonstrate the usefulness of ancient genomes from desiccated archaeobotanical remains in informing research into the origin, early domestication and subsequent migration of crop species.
authors.affiliation: Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) Gatersleben, Seeland, Germany.|German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mascher
authors.affiliation: Institute for Archaeological Sciences, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.|Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Verena J
authors.initials: VJ
authors.lastname: Schuenemann
authors.affiliation: Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: Uri
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Davidovich
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Archaeozoology, Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.
authors.forename: Nimrod
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Marom
authors.affiliation: Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) Gatersleben, Seeland, Germany.
authors.forename: Axel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Himmelbach
authors.affiliation: Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.|Department of Biotechnology, Tel Hai College, Upper Galilee, Israel.
authors.forename: Sariel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hübner
authors.affiliation: Institute of Evolution, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.|Department of Evolutionary and Environmental Biology, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.
authors.forename: Abraham
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Korol
authors.affiliation: Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel.
authors.forename: Michal
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: David
authors.affiliation: Institute for Archaeological Sciences, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Ella
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Reiter
authors.affiliation: Institute for Archaeological Sciences, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.|Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Simone
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Riehl
authors.affiliation: Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) Gatersleben, Seeland, Germany.
authors.forename: Mona
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schreiber
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California, USA.
authors.forename: Samuel H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Vohr
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California, USA.
authors.forename: Richard E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Green
authors.affiliation: Cell and Molecular Sciences, James Hutton Institute, Invergowrie, Dundee, UK.
authors.forename: Ian K
authors.initials: IK
authors.lastname: Dawson
authors.affiliation: Cell and Molecular Sciences, James Hutton Institute, Invergowrie, Dundee, UK.
authors.forename: Joanne
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Russell
authors.affiliation: Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) Gatersleben, Seeland, Germany.
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-9145-6980
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kilian
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Biology, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA.|Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA.
authors.forename: Gary J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Muehlbauer
authors.affiliation: Cell and Molecular Sciences, James Hutton Institute, Invergowrie, Dundee, UK.|Division of Plant Sciences, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK.
authors.forename: Robbie
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-1045-3065
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Waugh
authors.affiliation: Institute of Evolution, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.|Department of Evolutionary and Environmental Biology, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.
authors.forename: Tzion
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fahima
authors.affiliation: Institute for Archaeological Sciences, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.|Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.|Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Krause
authors.affiliation: Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel.
authors.forename: Ehud
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Weiss
authors.affiliation: Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) Gatersleben, Seeland, Germany.
authors.forename: Nils
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-3011-8731
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Stein
mesh_terms: D000064:Acclimatization / Q000235:genetics*; D000071278:Domestication; D051456:Gene Flow; D017343:Genes, Plant / Q000235:genetics*; D005828:Genetics, Population; D018745:Genome, Plant; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study; D023281:Genomics / Q000379:methods*; D001467:Hordeum / Q000235:genetics*; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide / Q000235:genetics