The Origins of Coca: Museum Genomics Reveals Multiple Independent Domestications from Progenitor Erythroxylum gracilipes.

ABSTRACT: Coca is the natural source of cocaine as well as a sacred and medicinal plant farmed by South American Amerindians and mestizos. The coca crop comprises four closely related varieties classified into two species (Amazonian and Huánuco varieties within Erythroxylum coca Lam., and Colombian and Trujillo varieties within Erythroxylum novogranatense (D. Morris) Hieron.) but our understanding of the domestication and evolutionary history of these taxa is nominal. In this study, we use genomic data from natural history collections to estimate the geographic origins and genetic diversity of this economically and culturally important crop in the context of its wild relatives. Our phylogeographic analyses clearly demonstrate the four varieties of coca comprise two or three exclusive groups nested w

SUBMITTER: White DM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7744036 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature