Goldschmidt Eliezer E
Institute of Plant Sciences and Genetics in Agriculture, The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel.
Econ Bot. 2013 Mar;67(1):51-62. doi: 10.1007/s12231-012-9219-y. Epub 2013 Jan 15.
Domestication of fruit trees has received far less attention than that of annual crop plants. In particular, very little is known about the evolution of fruit tree productivity. In the wild, most tree species reach reproductive maturity after a long period of juvenility and even then, sexual reproduction appears sporadically, often in a mode of masting. Environmental constraints limit trees' reproductive activity in their natural, wild habitats, resulting in poor, irregular productivity. Early fructification and regular, high rates of productivity have been selected by people, unconsciously and consciously. The reviewed evidence indicates an evolutionary continuum of productivity patterns among trees of wild habitats, intermediary domesticates, and the most advanced domesticates. Alternate bearing appears to represent an intermediate step in the fruit tree evolutionary pathway. The existence of a molecular, genetic mechanism that controls trees' sexual reproduction and fruiting pattern is suggested.
果树的驯化受到的关注远少于一年生作物。特别是，人们对果树生产力的进化了解甚少。在野外，大多数树种在经历很长一段时间的幼年期后才达到生殖成熟，即便如此，有性繁殖也只是偶尔出现，通常以大年结实的方式进行。环境限制因素制约着树木在其自然野生栖息地的繁殖活动，导致生产力低下且不稳定。人们有意无意地选择了早期结果以及稳定、高产的特性。现有证据表明，野生栖息地的树木、中间驯化品种和最先进的驯化品种之间存在生产力模式的进化连续体。隔年结果似乎代表了果树进化途径中的一个中间阶段。研究表明存在一种控制树木有性繁殖和结果模式的分子遗传机制。
