Cereal progenitors differ in stand harvest characteristics from related wild grasses.

ABSTRACT: The domestication of crops in the Fertile Crescent began approximately 10,000 years ago indicating a change from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a sedentary, agriculture-based existence. The exploitation of wild plants changed during this transition, such that a small number of crops were domesticated from the broader range of species gathered from the wild. However, the reasons for this change are unclear.Previous studies have shown unexpectedly that crop progenitors are not consistently higher yielding than related wild grass species, when growing without competition. In this study, we replicate more closely natural competition within wild stands, using two greenhouse experiments to investigate whether cereal progenitors exhibit a greater seed yield per unit area than related wild species

SUBMITTER: Preece C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5947309 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature