On the necessity of combining ethnobotany and genetics to assess agrobiodiversity and its evolution in crops: A case study on date palms (Phoenix dactylifera L.) in Siwa Oasis, Egypt.

ABSTRACT: Crop diversity is shaped by biological and social processes interacting at different spatiotemporal scales. Here, we combined population genetics and ethnobotany to investigate date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) diversity in Siwa Oasis, Egypt. Based on interviews with farmers and observation of practices in the field, we collected 149 date palms from Siwa Oasis and 27 uncultivated date palms from abandoned oases in the surrounding desert. Using genotyping data from 18 nuclear and plastid microsatellite loci, we confirmed that some named types each constitute a clonal line, that is, a true-to-type cultivar. We also found that others are collections of clonal lines, that is, ethnovarieties, or even unrelated samples, that is, local categories. This alters current assessments of agrobi

SUBMITTER: Gros-Balthazard M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7463332 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature