Fertile Crescent crop progenitors gained a competitive advantage from large seedlings.

ABSTRACT: Cereal domestication during the transition to agriculture resulted in widespread food production, but why only certain species were domesticated remains unknown. We tested whether seedlings of crop progenitors share functional traits that could give them a competitive advantage within anthropogenic environments, including higher germination, greater seedling survival, faster growth rates, and greater competitive ability.Fifteen wild grass species from the Fertile Crescent were grown individually under controlled conditions to evaluate differences in growth between cereal crop progenitors and other wild species that were never domesticated. Differences in germination, seedling survival, and competitive ability were measured by growing a subset of these species as monocultures and mixtures.C

SUBMITTER: Preece C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8019021 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature