Genomics Program, The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY 10458, USA.
Mol Phylogenet Evol. 2012 Jun;63(3):685-701. doi: 10.1016/j.ympev.2012.02.006. Epub 2012 Feb 25.
The domestication history of eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) has long been debated, with studies unable to narrow down where domestication occurred within a broad region of tropical Asia. The most commonly hypothesized region is India, however China has an equally old written record of eggplant use dating ca. 2000 years before present. Both regions have a high diversity of landraces and populations of putatively wild eggplant: Solanum incanum L. in India and Solanum undatum Lam. in SE Asia. An additional complication is that there is taxonomic confusion regarding the two candidate progenitors. Here, we synthesize historic, morphologic, and molecular data (nrITS sequence and AFLP) to interpret the phylogeographic relationships among candidate progenitors and Asian eggplant landraces in order to test theories of domestication. A minimum of two domestication events is supported: one in India and one in southern China/SE Asia. Results also support separate domestication of S. melongena subsp. ovigerum, a group of morphologically distinct eggplants found in SE Asia, and suggest Asian S. incanum and S. undatum may not be genetically distinct. Routes of the spread of eggplant cultivation throughout Asia are proposed, and evolutionary relationships among allied species are discussed.
茄子（Solanum melongena L.）的驯化历史一直存在争议，研究无法缩小其在热带亚洲广泛地区的驯化地点。最常假设的地区是印度，但中国也有同样古老的茄子使用书面记录，可追溯到公元前 2000 年左右。这两个地区都有丰富的地方品种和疑似野生茄子种群：印度的 Solanum incanum L.和东南亚的 Solanum undatum Lam.。另外一个复杂的情况是，两个候选祖先存在分类学上的混淆。在这里，我们综合了历史、形态和分子数据（nrITS 序列和 AFLP）来解释候选祖先和亚洲茄子地方品种之间的系统地理关系，以检验驯化理论。支持至少有两次驯化事件：一次在印度，一次在华南/东南亚。研究结果还支持 SE 亚洲形态独特的茄子群体 S. melongena subsp. ovigerum 的单独驯化，并表明亚洲的 S. incanum 和 S. undatum 可能在遗传上没有区别。提出了茄子在亚洲各地传播的途径，并讨论了相关物种之间的进化关系。
