Shifts in plant functional strategies over the course of wheat domestication

1. Human selection, changes in environmental conditions and management practices drove the phenotypic trajectory of crops during domestication. The characterization of the crop domestication syndrome lies mostly on reproductive characters. However, biophysical and ecophysiological constraints during vegetative growth are also at play and can strongly impact crop phenotypes. It has been argued that a broadened examination of crop phenotypes through a functional trait-based lens should improve our understanding of the domestication syndrome.
2. We used a collection of 39 genotypes representative of key steps during tetraploid wheat domestication, and grew them in a common garden experiment. We quantified the vegetative phenotype of each genotype through the measurements of 13 functional traits related to root, leaf and whole-plant dimensions.
3. In modern cultivars, compared to ancestral forms, leaf longevity was shorter while net photosynthetic rate, leaf production rate and nitrogen c...