A multifaceted overview of apple tree domestication

Amandine Cornille (1) , Ferran Antolín (2) , Elena García , Cristiano Vernesi (3) , Alice Fietta , Otto Brinkkemper , Wiebke Kirleis (4) , Angela Schlumbaum (5) , Isabel Roldán-Ruiz (6)

1 GQE-Le Moulon - Génétique Quantitative et Evolution - Le Moulon (Génétique Végétale)
2 Unibas - Université de Bâle = University of Basel = Basel Universität
3 Fondazione Edmund Mach - Functional genomics
4 Institut fûr Ur- und Frühgeschichte
5 Department of Environmental Sciences [Basel]
6 ILVO - Research Institute for Agricultural, Fisheries and Food

The apple is an iconic tree and a major fruit crop worldwide. It is also a model species for the study of the evolutionary processes and genomic basis underlying the domestication of clonally propagated perennial crops. Multidisciplinary approaches from across Eurasia have documented the pace and process of cultivation of this remarkable crop. While population genetics and genomics have revealed the overall domestication history of apple across Eurasia, untangling the evolutionary processes involved, archeobotany has helped to document the transition from gathering and using apples to the practice of cultivation. Further studies integrating archeogenetic and archeogenomic approaches will bring new insights about key traits involved in apple domestication. Such knowledge has potential to boost innovation in present-day apple breeding.

Mots clés: adaptive introgression; archeobotany; domestication; fruit trees; genomics; paleogenetics/genomics; perennial crops

Domaines: Sciences de l'environnement

Amandine Cornille, Ferran Antolín, Elena García, Cristiano Vernesi, Alice Fietta, et al.. A multifaceted overview of apple tree domestication. Trends in Plant Science, 2019, 24 (8), pp.770-782. ⟨10.1016/j.tplants.2019.05.007⟩. ⟨hal-02357023⟩