Lecture 9 Flashcards
centres or origin for crops:
Fertile Crescent in southwest Asia, Middle East, china, mesoamerica, andes, Amazonia, eastern and northern america
domestication
people grow plants on purpose for food and selected for particular traits
goosefoot
native to North America, 2500 years ago it was grown as a cereal, now its a weed
when did selection of crops begin
11,000 years ago
artificial selection; corn example
pick the seeds from the plants we like; corn was artificially selected for large cobs with seeds permanently attached to the cob, wild corn wants to spread seeds, reduced dormancy so all seeds germinate at the same time, one main stem because its easier to harvest, reduced shade avoidance to grow in rows,
stupid plants
crops are “stupid plants” because they are incapable of competing and allocating resources to responses. we want them to put all resources into producing seeds or growing. they can’t compete, we make the decisions for them.
teosinte
wild corn; highly branded stem, seeds disperse, variable seed dormancy, seeds germinate at different times
TB1 and TGA1 genes
genes in the regulatory region of corn, small changes to these genes cause massive changes between corn and teosinte because changing these genes changes the regulation of all genes in the region; only 5 changes to genome required to change teosinte into corn
TB1 gene function in teosinte
branched gene; maize tb1 mutant is branched; TB1 is a transcriptional repressor, expressed differently in corn and teosinte, more in corn less in teosinte; TB1 represses growth from auxiliary meristems in corn, not enough of it in teosinte to restrict branching
glume
protective kernel covered with lignin and silica providing protection in teosinte, no good for corn because we want access to the seeds
TGA1 gene function
positively regulates glume, more TGA1=more glume
evolutionary differences are often due to:
variation in regulatory genes which have major affects on multiple aspects of a phenotype
polyploid corp examples
banana, canola, cotton, oat, potato, sugar cane, wheat, sweet potato; commercial plants are polyploidy
Emmer wheat
pasta wheat; low in gluten protein; not sticky
T. aestivum wheat
bread wheat; high levels of gluten protein; sticky which is important in bread dough to trap CO2 in and rise
cultivated wheat:
wheat is an allopolyploid of distinct diploid and tetraploid species
how does cultivated wheat “act” as a diploid during meiosis
bread wheat genome is hexaploid (AABBDD) but acts as a diploid during meiosis pairing only chromosomes from the same genomes. homologous pairing A with A, B with B, etc. this ensures stable inheritance of the complete wheat haploid genome (ABD) from one generation to the next
Brassica species
includes a lot of vegetables including canola, rutabaga, cabbage, turnip, Brussels, kohlrabi. exists as 3 separate species but closely related, interbred to produce 3 allopolyploid species
B. oleracea
cabbage, kale, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cauliflower
B. nigra
black mustard
B. rapa
Chinese cabbage, turnip