Independent domestication and cultivation histories of two West African indigenous fonio millet crops.

ABSTRACT: Crop evolutionary history and domestication processes are key issues for better conservation and effective use of crop genetic diversity. Black and white fonio (Digitaria iburua and D. exilis, respectively) are two small indigenous grain cereals grown in West Africa. The relationship between these two cultivated crops and wild Digitaria species is still unclear. Here, we analyse whole genome sequences of 265 accessions comprising these two cultivated species and their close wild relatives. We show that white and black fonio were the result of two independent domestications without gene flow. We infer a cultivation expansion that began at the outset of the CE era, coinciding with the earliest discovered archaeological fonio remains in Nigeria. Fonio population sizes declined a few centuries

SUBMITTER: Kaczmarek T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12044004 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature