Historical collections reveal patterns of diffusion of sweet potato in Oceania obscured by modern plant movements and recombination.

ABSTRACT: The history of sweet potato in the Pacific has long been an enigma. Archaeological, linguistic, and ethnobotanical data suggest that prehistoric human-mediated dispersal events contributed to the distribution in Oceania of this American domesticate. According to the "tripartite hypothesis," sweet potato was introduced into Oceania from South America in pre-Columbian times and was then later newly introduced, and diffused widely across the Pacific, by Europeans via two historically documented routes from Mexico and the Caribbean. Although sweet potato is the most convincing example of putative pre-Columbian connections between human occupants of Polynesia and South America, the search for genetic evidence of pre-Columbian dispersal of sweet potato into Oceania has been inconclusive. Our stu

SUBMITTER: Roullier C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3568323 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature