Patterns of domestication in the Ethiopian oil-seed crop Noug (Guizotia abyssinica)

Noug (Guizotia abyssinica) is a semi-domesticated oil-seed crop, which is primarily cultivated in Ethiopia. Unlike its closest crop relative, sunflower, noug has small seeds, small flowering heads, many branches, many flowering heads, indeterminate flowering, and it shatters in the field. Here we conducted common garden studies and microsatellite analyses of genetic variation to test whether high levels of crop-wild gene flow and/or unfavorable phenotypic correlations have hindered noug domestication. With the exception of one population, analyses of microsatellite variation failed to detect substantial recent admixture between noug and its wild progenitor. Likewise, only very weak correlations were found between seed mass and the number or size of flowering heads. Thus, noug's ‘atypical’ domestication syndrome does not seem to be a consequence of recent introgression or unfavorable phenotypic correlations. Nonetheless, our data do reveal evidence of local adaptation of noug cultivars t...

努格（Guizotia abyssinica）是一种半驯化油料作物，主要栽培于埃塞俄比亚。与其近缘栽培作物向日葵不同，努格具有种子更小、花序更纤小、分枝更为繁茂、花序数量更多、开花习性为无限型的特征，且田间落粒性较强。本研究通过同质园试验（common garden study）与遗传变异微卫星分析，旨在检验高水平的作物-野生近缘种基因流以及不利的表型相关是否阻碍了努格的驯化进程。除单个种群外，微卫星变异分析未检测到努格与其野生祖本间存在显著的近期遗传混杂。同理，种子质量与花序数量或花序大小之间仅存在极微弱的相关关系。因此，努格‘非典型’的驯化综合征似乎并非由近期基因渐渗或不利的表型相关所导致。尽管如此，本研究数据仍揭示了努格栽培种的本地适应性证据……