Wild progenitors provide a sound baseline model for evolutionary analysis of domesticated crop species

Overview

Gene flow is the transfer of genes among populations, resulting from either the dispersal of gametes or from the migration of individuals.

Crop cultivation has a long history in human civilization, with records showing the cultivation of cereal plants beginning at around 8000 BC. This early plant breeding was developed primarily to provide a steady supply of food.

Speciation is the evolutionary process resulting in the formation of new, distinct species—groups of reproductively isolated populations.

Gregor Mendel's work (1822 - 1884) was primarily focused on pea plants. Through his initial experiments, he determined that every gene in a diploid cell has two variants called alleles inherited from each parent. He suggested that amongst these two alleles, one allele is dominant in character and the other recessive. The combination of alleles determines the phenotype of a gene in an organism.

Alleles are different forms of the same gene. Humans and other diploid organisms inherit two alleles of every gene, one from each parent.