Abstract Detail

Charles Heiser Special Contributed Paper Session

Blackman, Benjamin [1], Kane, Nolan [2], Luton, Harold [3], Rasmussen, David [1], Bye, Robert [4], Lentz, David [5], Rieseberg, Loren [6].

Sunflower domestication alleles support single domestication center in eastern North America .

Phylogenetic analyses of genes with demonstrated involvement in evolutionary transitions can be an important means of resolving conflicting hypotheses about evolutionary history or process. In sunflower, two genes have previously been shown to be under selection during its early domestication. We have identified a third candidate early domestication gene and conducted haplotype analyses of all three genes to address a recent, controversial hypothesis about the origin of cultivated sunflower. While the scientific consensus had long been that sunflower was domesticated once in eastern North America, the discovery of pre-Columbian sunflower remains at archaeological sites in Mexico led to the proposal of a second domestication center in southern Mexico. Notably, the identification of these remains as sunflower was initially supported but later contested by Dr. Charles Heiser, and he frequently challenged this and other evidence cited as support for the multiple domestication center hypothesis in his publications over the last decade. Previous molecular studies with neutral markers were consistent with Heiser's favored single origin view. However, only two Mexican indigenous cultivars were included in these studies, and their provenance and genetic purity has been questioned. Therefore, we sequenced regions of the three candidate domestication genes containing SNPs diagnostic for domestication from large, newly collected samples of Mexican sunflower landraces and Mexican wild populations from a broad geographic range. Our evidence from multiple loci supports a single domestication event for extant cultivated sunflower in eastern North America.

Broader Impacts:

1 - Duke University, Biology, Durham, NC, 27708, USA
2 - University of British Columbia, Botany, Vancouver, BC, V6R 2A5, Canada
3 - Indiana University, Biology, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA
4 - Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Jardín Botánico Exterior, Instituto de Biología, DF 04510, Mexico
5 - University Of Cincinnati, Biological Sciences, PO Box 210006, Cincinnati, OH, 45221, USA
6 - University Of British Columbia, Department Of Botany, 6270 University Blvd, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada

Keywords:
sunflower
Helianthus annuus
domestication.

Presentation Type: Oral Paper:Papers for Topics
Session: 15
Location: Lindell D/Chase Park Plaza
Date: Monday, July 11th, 2011
Time: 2:15 PM
Number: 15004
Abstract ID:102