Deciphering of domestication principles enlightens future crop breeding

Crop domestication represents a pivotal milestone in human civilization. Genomic evolutionary patterns underlying domestication harbor valuable insights into crop domestication and improvement. With increasingly frequent extreme weather events and rapid population growth posing challenges to global food security, expanding the repertoire of utilizable crops and improving crops are important strategies for addressing these challenges. This review systematically summarized fundamental phenotypic alterations and genomic variation patterns during domestication, and the genetic basis of domestication syndrome-related traits. It also outlines genomic research frameworks and methodologies related to crop domestication, while providing a comprehensive analysis and forward-looking perspective on de novo domestication. Collectively, this work reviews researches on deciphering genomic principles of crop domestication and their applications, aiming to lay a solid theoretical foundation for designed crop breeding in future.