Gourds and squashes (Cucurbita spp.) adapted to megafaunal extinction and ecological anachronism through domestication.

ABSTRACT: The genus Cucurbita (squashes, pumpkins, gourds) contains numerous domesticated lineages with ancient New World origins. It was broadly distributed in the past but has declined to the point that several of the crops' progenitor species are scarce or unknown in the wild. We hypothesize that Holocene ecological shifts and megafaunal extinctions severely impacted wild Cucurbita, whereas their domestic counterparts adapted to changing conditions via symbiosis with human cultivators. First, we used high-throughput sequencing to analyze complete plastid genomes of 91 total Cucurbita samples, comprising ancient (n = 19), modern wild (n = 30), and modern domestic (n = 42) taxa. This analysis demonstrates independent domestication in eastern North America, evidence of a previously unknown pathway t

SUBMITTER: Kistler L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4679018 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature