Allaby, Robin G. (2010) Integrating the processes in the evolutionary system of domestication. Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.61 (No.4). pp. 935-944. doi:10.1093/jxb/erp382

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Abstract

Genetics has long been used as a source of evidence to understand domestication origins. A recent shift in the emphasis of archaeological evidence from a rapid transition paradigm of hunter-gatherers to agriculturalists, to a protracted transition paradigm has highlighted how the scientific framework of interpretation of genetic data was quite dependent on archaeological evidence, resulting in a period of discord in which the two evidence types appeared to support different paradigms. Further examination showed that the discriminatory power of the approaches employed in genetics was low, and framed within the rapid paradigm rather than testing it. In order to interpret genetic data under the new protracted paradigm it must be taken into account how that paradigm changes our expectations of genetic diversity. Preliminary examination suggests that a number of features that constituted key evidence in the rapid paradigm are likely to be interpreted very differently in the protracted paradigm. Specifically, in the protracted transition the mode and mechanisms involved in the evolution of the domestication syndrome have become much more influential in the shape of genetic diversity. The result is that numerous factors interacting over several levels of organization in a domestication system need to be taken into account in order to understand the evolution of the process. This presents a complex problem of integration of different data types which is difficult to describe formally. One possible way forward is to use Bayesian approximation approaches that allow complex systems to be measured in a way that does not require such formality.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	Q Science > QH Natural history > QH426 Genetics
Divisions:	Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Science > Life Sciences (2010- ) > Warwick HRI (2004-2010)
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Plants, Cultivated -- Genetic aspects, Domestication -- Genetic aspects, Evolutionary genetics, Bayesian statistical decision theory, Plants, Cultivated -- History
Journal or Publication Title:	Journal of Experimental Botany
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
ISSN:	0022-0957
Official Date:	March 2010
Dates:	Date Event March 2010 Published
Volume:	Vol.61
Number:	No.4
Page Range:	pp. 935-944
DOI:	10.1093/jxb/erp382
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Access rights to Published version:	Restricted or Subscription Access

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