Tanno Ken-Ichi, Willcox George
Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Takashima 335, Kamigyo, 602-0878 Kyoto, Japan.
Science. 2006 Mar 31;311(5769):1886. doi: 10.1126/science.1124635.
Prehistoric cultivation of wild wheat in the Fertile Crescent led to the selection of mutants with indehiscent (nonshattering) ears, which evolved into modern domestic wheat. Previous estimates suggested that this transformation was rapid, but our analyses of archaeological plant remains demonstrate that indehiscent domesticates were slow to appear, emerging approximately 9500 years before the present, and that dehiscent (shattering) forms were still common in cultivated fields approximately 7500 years before the present. Slow domestication implies that after cultivation began, wild cereals may have remained unchanged for a long period, supporting claims that agriculture originated in the Near East approximately 10,500 years before the present.
在新月沃地对野生小麦的史前种植导致了具有不易脱粒(不散落)穗的突变体的选择,这些突变体逐渐演变成了现代的驯化小麦。先前的估计表明这种转变是迅速的,但我们对考古植物遗存的分析表明,不易脱粒的驯化品种出现得很慢,大约在距今9500年前出现,而易脱粒(散落)的类型在距今约7500年前的耕田中仍然很常见。缓慢的驯化意味着在种植开始后,野生谷物可能在很长一段时间内保持不变,这支持了农业起源于距今约10500年前近东地区的说法。