Natural morphological diversity and haplotype structure in the Karacadag mountain populations of Triticum monococcum from which humans first cultivated einkorn wheat

• Applicant: Professor Dr. William Martin
• Co-Applicant: Professor Dr. Francesco Salamini
• Subject Area: Evolution and Systematics of Plants and Fungi
• Term: from 2002 to 2009
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5360547

Agriculture originated in the Middle East 10,000 years ago through human selection of suitable genotypes from preexisting natural diversity among wild cultivar populations. The selection and spread of cultivated crops with human (agri-) culture are species-level radiations for which the spatio-temporal progression, the selected traits, and, in a few rare cases, the progenitor populations are inferrable or known. One of the earliest cultivated species was einkorn wheat (Triticum monococcum ssp. monococcum), a crop still in use today. Previous work revealed that T. m. boeoticum populations from Karacadag mountain range - located between the west bank of the Euphrates and the source of the Tigris in southeast Turkey - are the populations from which humans first selected einkorn. Here we aim to uncover the genetic fine structure of these progenitor populations and thier relationship(s) to cultivated einkorn accessions. For this, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in about 20 genes will be i) determined from 250 Karacagad accessions belonging to 19 populations and ii) compared to 50 cultivated T. m. monococcum lines including a weedy Balkan relative of einkorn, T. m. aegilopoides. This will provide insights into the precise populations and loci that humans initially selected during einkorn domestication, thus uncovering the genetics and natural history of a rapid, human-driven species diversification.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 1127: Radiations - Origins of Biological Diversity
• International Connection: Italy