biostudies-literatureUnknown647(8090)Guo YBarley is one of the oldest cultivated crops, with a complex evolutionary and domestication history¹. Previous studies have rejected the idea of a single origin and instead support a model of mosaic genomic ancestry^2,3. With increasingly comprehensive genome data, we now ask where the haplotypes - the building blocks of this mosaic - originate, and whether all domesticated barleys share the same wild progenitors or whether certain wild populations contribute more heavily to specific lineages. To address these questions, we apply a haplotype-based approach to investigate the genetic diversity and population structure of wild and domesticated barley. We analyse whole-genome sequences from 682 genebank accessions and 23 archaeological specimens, tracing the spatiotemporaNature680-688https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC12629985biostudies-literatureA haplotype-based evolutionary history of barley domestication.PMC12629985Jayakodi MReiter EGuo YBen-Yosef EFahima THimmelbach ASchuenemann VJSteffenson BJStein NKislev MMascher MHartmann-Shenkman AWeiss EDavidovich UDavid MKrause JfalseA haplotype-based evolutionary history of barley domestication.Barley is one of the oldest cultivated crops, with a complex evolutionary and domestication history¹. Previous studies have rejected the idea of a single origin and instead support a model of mosaic genomic ancestry^2,3. With increasingly comprehensive genome data, we now ask where the haplotypes - the building blocks of this mosaic - originate, and whether all domesticated barleys share the same wild progenitors or whether certain wild populations contribute more heavily to specific lineages. To address these questions, we apply a haplotype-based approach to investigate the genetic diversity and population structure of wild and domesticated barley. We analyse whole-genome sequences from 682 genebank accessions and 23 archaeological specimens, tracing the spatiotempora2025-01-01T00:00:00Z2025 Nov2026-05-19T03:21:34.4Z2026-05-19T03:11:50.085ZS-EPMC126299854099338410.1038/s41586-025-09533-7