Accumulation of mutations in genes associated with sexual reproduction contributed to the domestication of a vegetatively propagated staple crop, enset

Abstract

Enset (Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) Cheesman) is a drought tolerant, vegetatively propagated crop that was domesticated in Ethiopia. It is a staple food for more than 20 million people in Ethiopia. Despite its current importance and immense potential, enset is among the most genetically understudied and underexploited food crops. We collected 230 enset wild and cultivated accessions across the main enset producing regions in Ethiopia and applied amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) and genotype by sequencing (GBS) analyses to these accessions. Wild and cultivated accessions were clearly separated from each other, with 89 genes found to harbour SNPs that separated wild from cultivated accessions. Among these, 17 genes are thought to be involved in flower initiation and seed development. Among cultivated accessions, differentiation was mostly associated with geographical location and with proximity to wild populations. Our results indicate that vegetative propagation of elite clones has favoured capacity for vegetative growth at the expense of capacity for sexual reproduction. This is consistent with previous reports that cultivated enset tends to produce non-viable seeds and flowers less frequently than wild enset.

Reproductive biology of wild and domesticated Ensete ventricosum: Further evidence for maintenance of sexual reproductive capacity in a vegetatively propagated perennial crop

“… 2020 ; Tesfamicael et al . 2020 ). In this study, we show evidence that the indigenous Ethiopian vegetative crop enset has retained viable sexual reproductive potential through domestication.…”

“…( 2013 ), they differs substantially from those of Tesfamicael et al . ( 2020 ), who suggested that selection has favoured vegetative growth over capacity for sexual reproduction. Whilst Tesfamicael et al .…”

“…Whilst Tesfamicael et al . ( 2020 ) applied a genomic approach to identify putative flowering‐associated genes under selection, we note that inference of the gene function is challenging and few resources are available in non‐model species to facilitate this. For this reason, we suggest that the empirical analyses presented here may provide a better indication of enset reproductive capacity.…”

“…Third, recent genomic analysis concluded that accumulation of mutations in genes associated with flower initiation and seed development may have contributed to enset’s domestication (Tesfamicael et al . 2020 ). Finally, unlike other tuberous perennials, such as yam ( Dioscorea L.) (Mengesha et al .…”

Identification of marker-trait associated SNPs for fruit weight and plant height in a wild and domesticated jujube fruit tree (Ziziphus spp.) collection using genotyping-by-sequencing

“…Libraries were sequenced using the Illumina Hi-Seq 2500 platform with output of 150 bp single end reads. Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) calling was performed using the reference-based GBS pipeline (Torkamaneh, Laroche, and Belzile 2016) as described by Tesfamicael et al (2020). Before SNP calling, sequence reads were filtered for those harboring identical matches to barcodes, minimum kmer count (< 10) and kmer Length (< 20).…”