Naibin Duan, Yang Bai, Honghe Sun, Nan Wang, Yumin Ma, Mingjun Li, Xin Wang, Chen Jiao, Noah Legall, Linyong Mao, Sibao Wan, Kun Wang, Tianming He, Shouqian Feng, Zongying Zhang, Zhiquan Mao, Xiang Shen, Xiaoliu Chen, Yuanmao Jiang, Shujing Wu, Chengmiao Yin, Shunfeng Ge, Long Yang, Shenghui Jiang, Haifeng Xu, Jingxuan Liu, Deyun Wang, Changzhi Qu, Yicheng Wang, Weifang Zuo, Li Xiang, Chang Liu, Daoyuan Zhang, Yuan Gao, Yimin Xu, Kenong Xu, Thomas Chao, Gennaro Fazio, Huairui Shu, Gan-Yuan Zhong, Lailiang Cheng, Zhangjun Fei, Xuesen Chen
Human selection has reshaped crop genomes. Here we report an apple genome variation map generated through genome sequencing of 117 diverse accessions. A comprehensive model of apple speciation and domestication along the Silk Road is proposed based on evidence from diverse genomic analyses. Cultivated apples likely originate from Malus sieversii in Kazakhstan, followed by intensive introgressions from M. sylvestris. M. sieversii in Xinjiang of China turns out to be an "ancient" isolated ecotype not directly contributing to apple domestication...
August 15, 2017: Nature Communications