Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T15:31:30.715Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Approaches and constraints of using existing landrace and extant plant material to understand agricultural spread in prehistory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2008

Huw Jones ,
Diane L. Lister ,
Mim A. Bower ,
Fiona J. Leigh ,
Lydia M. Smith  and
Martin K. Jones
Huw Jones
Affiliation:
NIAB, Huntingdon Road, Cambridge CB3 0LE, UK
Diane L. Lister
Affiliation:
McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3ER, UK
Mim A. Bower
Affiliation:
McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3ER, UK
Fiona J. Leigh
Affiliation:
NIAB, Huntingdon Road, Cambridge CB3 0LE, UK
Lydia M. Smith*
Affiliation:
NIAB, Huntingdon Road, Cambridge CB3 0LE, UK
Martin K. Jones
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3DZ, UK
*
*Corresponding author. [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The potential for the phylogeographical analysis of cereal landraces to determine the initial patterns of agricultural spread through Europe is discussed in relation to two of the first cereals to be domesticated, emmer wheat (Triticum turgidum subsp. dicoccum) and barley (Hordeum vulgare). Extant landraces available from germplasm collections have a patchy distribution, largely being confined to regions of rugged upland topography, and the phylogeographical patterns observed may be due to ‘overstamping’ by more recent crop movements. Phylogeographical studies of non-viable historical landrace material held in herbarium and old seed collections and found in historical buildings have the potential to fill in the gaps in time and space. We explore the importance of precise geographical provenance and the limitations of this in extant and historical material. Additionally, we consider the effect of various chemicals and the preservation of DNA in the historical material.

Keywords

ancient DNAgermplasmherbarium specimensbarleyemmer wheatlandraces
Type
Research Article
Information
Plant Genetic Resources , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , August 2008 , pp. 98 - 112
Copyright
Copyright © NIAB 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allaby, RG, Banerjee, M and Brown, TA (1999) Evolution of the high molecular weight glutenin loci of the A, B, D, and G genomes of wheat. Genome 42: 296–307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alonso, A, Martin, P, Albarran, C, Garcia, P, Garcia, O, de Simon, LF, Garcia-Hirschfeld, J, Sancho, M, de La Rua, C and Fernandez-Piqueras, J (2004) Real-time PCR designs to estimate nuclear and mitochondrial DNA copy number in forensic and ancient DNA studies. Forensic Science International 139: 141–149.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Badr, A, Müller, K, Schäfer-Pregl, R, El Rabey, H, Effgen, S, Ibrahim, HH, Pozzi, C, Rohde, W and Salamini, F (2000) On the origin and domestication history of barley (Hordeum vulgare). Molecular Biology and Evolution 17: 499–510.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baumer, M and Cais, R (2000) Abstammung der Gerstensorten. Manuscript (unpublished) information available from www.lfl.bayern.de/ipz/gerste/09740/gerstenstamm.php.Google Scholar
Baumer, M and Göppel, W (1998) Gerste, Sorten, Zuchter, Urspungland, Zulassungsjahr, Abstammung. Manuscript (unpublished) information available from www.lfl.bayern.de/ipz/gerste/09740/gerstenstamm.php.Google Scholar
Bertin, P, Gregoire, D, Massart, S and de Froidmont, D (2001) Genetic diversity among European cultivated spelt revealed by microsatellites. Theoretical and Applied Genetics 1102: 148–156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonjean, AP and Angus, WJ (2000) The World Wheat Book: A History of Wheat Breeding. Paris: Lavoisier Publishing.Google Scholar
Bridge, MC (1988) The dendrochronological dating of buildings in southern England. Medieval Archaeology 32: 166–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, AHD (1999a) The genetic structure of crop landraces and the challenge to conserve them in situ on farms. In: Brush, S (ed.) Genes in the Field. Rome: International Plant Genetic Resources Institute, pp. 29–48.Google Scholar
Brown, TA (1999b) How ancient DNA may help in understanding the origin and spread of agriculture. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society London B 354: 89–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, TA (1999c) Genetic material. In: Carter, D and Walker, AK (eds) Care and Conservation of Natural History Collections. Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann, pp. 133–138.Google Scholar
Brown, TA, Lindsay, S and Allaby, RG (2006) Using modern landraces of wheat to study the origins of European Agriculture. In: Motley, TJ, Zeregra, N and Cross, H (eds) Darwin's Harvest: New Approaches to the Origins, Evolution, and Conservation of Crops (0231133162). New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 197–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Camacho Villa, TC, Maxted, N, Scholten, MA and Ford-Lloyd, BV (2005) Defining and identifying crop landraces. Plant Genetic Resource: Characterization and Utilization, 3, (3): 373–384.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cota-Sanchez, JH, Remarchuk, K and Ubayasena, K (2006) Ready-to-use DNA extracted with a CTAB method adapted for herbarium specimens and mucilaginous plant tissue. Plant Molecular Biology Reporter 24: 161–167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fischbeck, G (2003) Diversification through breeding. In: von Bothmer, R, van Hintum, T, Knüpffer, H and Sato, K (eds) Diversity in Barley (Hordeum vulgare). London: Elsevier, pp. 29–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frankel, OH, Brown, AHD and Burdon, JJ (1998) The Conservation of Plant Biodiversity. 2nd edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 56–78.Google Scholar
Hänni, C, Brousseau, T, Laudet, V and Stehelin, D (1995) Isopropanol precipitation removes PCR inhibitors from ancient bone extracts. Nucleic Acids Research 23: 881–882.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harlan, JR (1992) Crops and Man. 2nd edn. Madison, WI: American Society of Agronomy, pp. 147–148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heun, M, Schäfer-Pregl, R, Klawan, D, Castagna, R, Accerbi, M, Borghi, B and Salamini, F (1997) Site of Einkorn wheat domestication identified by DNA fingerprinting. Science 278: 1312–1314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
IPGRI(1994) Genebank Standards. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations/International Plant Genetic Resources Institute.Google Scholar
Letts, J (1999) Smoke Blackened Thatch: A Unique Source of Late Mediaeval Plant Remains from Southern England. London/Reading, MA: English Heritage/University of Reading.Google Scholar
Li, W, Brlansky, R and Hartung, JS (2006) Amplification of DNA of Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. citri from historic citrus canker herbarium specimens. Journal of Microbiological Methods 65: 237–246.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lister, DL, Bower, MA, Howe, CJ and Jones, MK (2008) Extraction and amplification of nuclear DNA from herbarium specimens of emmer wheat: a method for assessing DNA preservation by maximum amplicon length recovery. Taxon 57: 254–258.Google Scholar
Morrison, LA (2001) The Percival Herbarium and wheat taxonomy: yesterday, today and tomorrow. In: Caligari, PDS and Brandham, PE (eds) Wheat Taxonomy: The Legacy of John Percival. The Linnean Society of London Special Issue No. 3. London: Academic Press, pp. 65–80.Google Scholar
Reed, FA, Kontanis, EJ, Kennedy, KA and Aquadro, CF (2003) Ancient DNA prospects from Sri Lankan highland dry caves support an emerging global pattern. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 121: 112–116.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zeven, AC (1996) Results of activities to maintain landraces and other material in some European countries in situ before 1945 and what we may learn from them. Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution 43: 337–341.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhang, L and Wu, Q (2005) Single gene retrieval from thermally degraded DNA. Journal of Bioscience 30: 599–604.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed