www.agtechdaily.com
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • Home
  • Agriculture
  • Food
  • Technology
  • Sustainability
Contact
ABOUT US
  • Home
  • Agriculture
  • Food
  • Technology
  • Sustainability
No Result
View All Result
www.agtechdaily.com
No Result
View All Result
Home Agriculture

Tomato domestication involved agricultural societies from Peru to Mexico

Admin by Admin
March 2, 2022
Reading Time:4min read
0

RELATED POSTS

Impact of bulk density and content of rock fragments

Almost all of Africa’s maize crop is at risk from devastating fall armyworm pest, study reveals

The unlikely food source for pollinators

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

The plants we eat have been domesticated. There are no wild chihuahuas, in the wilderness there are wolves and, likewise, there are no wild big and juicy tomatoes, bread wheat or popcorn maize in the wild. Our forebears modified these species to adapt them to their needs, uses, and tastes. The tomato was domesticated by native american cultures thousands of years ago. Unfortunately, there are few tomato archeological remains and many questions to answer. Although some of these issues have been discussed for decades, most of them still have no final answers. For instance, it has been proposed that the domestication could have been carried out in Mesoamerica, the region comprising Mexico and Central America, or, alternatively, in Peru and Ecuador, but there has been no definitive evidence capable of settling the debate.

The plant genomic group at COMAV, a research institute located in the Universitat Politècnica de València in Spain, in collaboration with researchers from the University of Georgia are publishing in Horticulture Research new findings obtained within Varitome, a National Science Foundation funded project (NSF1564366). The whole genome of 628 wild and cultivated plants have been analyzed to unravel some details of the complex American tomato history.

Most of the contemporary cultivated tomato is very similar to the wild Mesoamerican plants (Solanum lycopersicum var. cerasiforme), however, in its domestication there were also involved wild Ecuadorian and Peruvian species (S. pimpinellifolium). This complex scenario has hampered the study of the tomato domestication for decades, but, thanks to a novel statistical analysis developed for this research, it was possible to find out that although the domestication process started with the Mesoamerican materials, it was quite complex. In a first step, Mesoamerican plants migrated southward to a region located between the Andes foot and the Amazonian forest in Peru and Ecuador. This humid region is known as Ceja de Montaña. This migration was fast and very likely due to the commercial relationships established between different Mesoamerican and Ecuadorian and Peruvian cultures. More recently, some plants, very similar to the ones still grown in Southern Ecuador and Northern Peru, migrated back to Mexico. Surprisingly, the vintage Yucatan tomatoes are more similar to the Peruvian and Ecuadorian Ceja de Montaña ones than to its wild counterparts found in Mexico. Thus, it has been established that some wild tomatoes migrated southward and, then, went back as cultivated.

Moreover, these voyages would change the tomato forever. The growers from Ceja de Montaña did not use pure Mesoamerican plants, but admixtures created crossing the newly arrived plants with wild plants from coastal Peru and Ecuador. It is also there, in Southern Ecuador and Northern Peru, in the region located between Mayo and Chinchipe, where the highest genetic diversity of cultivated tomatoes in the world have been found, and it might be there where the domestication took place. However, to have a final confirmation regarding this question new archeological tomato remains could be needed.

The hybridization between Mesoamerican and Ecuatorial plants was used to take genes needed to adapt the northern tomatoes to the climate and latitude of Ecuador. Without this old hybridization it is unlikely that the tomato could have been easily adapted to climates as different as the Ecuadorian forests and the Mediterranean coasts.

The American tomato history was complex and included very distant agricultural cultures that adapted the crop to their needs and tastes. Like any other crop, the cultivated tomato was created by the genetic modifications fostered by its first growers. In the Americas the tomato was a secondary crop used mainly to prepare sauces. However, this was not the end of its trips, but only the beginning. For instance, after arriving in Europe different varieties were created, and it wasn’t until the industrial revolution that the crop acquired its current relevance. Nowadays we are still creating new varieties adapted, again, to our needs, uses, and tastes. The native american growers defined the past of the tomato, and it is our shared task to define its future. We change the plants we grow, and they, in turn, define us.

Buy JNews
ADVERTISEMENT

Genome sequences for two wild tomato ancestors


More information:
Jose Blanca et al, Haplotype analyses reveal novel insights into tomato history and domestication driven by long-distance migrations and latitudinal adaptations, Horticulture Research (2022). DOI: 10.1093/hr/uhac030

Provided by
Universitat Politècnica de València

Citation:
Tomato domestication involved agricultural societies from Peru to Mexico (2022, March 1)
retrieved 2 March 2022
from https://phys.org/news/2022-03-tomato-domestication-involved-agricultural-societies.html

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no
part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.



Source link

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...
Admin

Admin

Related Posts

Agriculture

Impact of bulk density and content of rock fragments

February 1, 2023
Agriculture

Almost all of Africa’s maize crop is at risk from devastating fall armyworm pest, study reveals

February 1, 2023
Agriculture

The unlikely food source for pollinators

February 1, 2023
Agriculture

European farms mix things up to guard against food-supply shocks

January 28, 2023
Agriculture

Development of machine vision system capable of locating king flowers on apple trees

January 28, 2023
Agriculture

A transnational collaboration leads to the characterization of an emergent plant virus

January 27, 2023
Next Post

The global agricultural microbial market expected to reach USD 11.23 billion, Says Shingetsu Research - Agriculture Industry Today

Stocks Rise After Powell Comments

Latest News

Kansas 4-H is growing future agricultural innovators

March 26, 2022

Poor Rail Service Costing Agriculture Sector, Canadian Economy, Industry Insiders Say

May 12, 2022

Barry Callebaut opens chocolate plant in Australia

March 26, 2022

Most Popular

  • Agricultural E-Commerce Boosts Incomes For Cherry farmers in Shandong

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Seeds of Discord: Farmers Accused of Fraud in Dicamba Dispute | Arkansas Business News

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Farm Credit Administration tours the Midwest – Agweek

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • 12 Biggest Agriculture Companies in the World

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • How Technology Is Changing Agriculture

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn
www.agtechdaily.com

AgTech Daily provides in-depth journalism and insight into the most impactful news and trends shaping the agricultural and food technology industry

Categories

  • Agriculture
  • Announcements
  • Food
  • Others
  • Sustainability
  • Technology

Quick Links

  • Home
  • About us

© 2022 - All Right Reserved. www.agtechdaily.com.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Agriculture
  • Food
  • Technology
  • Sustainability

© 2022 - All Right Reserved. www.agtechdaily.com.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
%d bloggers like this: