Darwin's Harvest: New Approaches to the Origins, Evolution, and Conservation of Crops

by Timothy Motley, Nyree Zerega, Hugh Cross

Overview

Darwin's Harvest addresses concerns that we are losing the diversity of crop plants that provide food for most of the world. With contributions from evolutionary biologists, geneticists, agronomists, molecular biologists, and anthropologists, this collection discusses how economic development, loss of heirloom varieties and wild ancestors, and modern agricultural techniques have endangered the genetic diversity needed to keep agricultural crops vital and capable of adaptation.

Drawing on the most up-to-date data, the contributors review the utilization of molecular techniques to understand crop evolution. They explore current research on various crop plants of both temperate and tropical origin, including maize, sunflower, avocado, sugarcane, and wheat. The chapters in Darwin's Harvest also provide solid background for understanding many recent discoveries concerning the origins of crops and the influence of human migration and farming practices on the genetics of our modern foods.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231133166
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	01/04/2006
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Timothy J. Motley is associate professor in the Collum Program for Molecular Systematics at The New York Botanical Garden.

Nyree Zerega is the director of the Plant Biology and Conservation Program at Northwestern University and the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Hugh Cross is a postdoctoral researcher at the National Herbarium of theNetherlands, Leiden University.

Table of Contents

List of Contributors
1. Crop Plants: Past, Present, and Future, by Timothy J. Motley
Part I. Genetics and Origin of Crops : Evolution and Domestication
2. Molecular Evidence and the Evolutionary History of the Domesticated Sunflower, by Loren H. Rieseberg and Abigail V. Harter
3. Molecular Evidence of Sugarcane Evolution and Domestication, by Laurent Grivet, Jean-Christophe Glaszmann, and Angélique D'Hont
4. Maize Origins, Domestication, and Selection, by Edward S. Buckler IV and Natalie M. Stevens
5. Contributions of Tripsacum to Maize Diversity, by Mary W. Eubanks
Part II. Systematics and the Origin of Crops: Phylogenetic and Biogeographic Relationships
6. Evolution of Genetic Diversity in Phaseolus vulgaris L., by Roberto Papa, Laura Nanni, Delphine Sicard, Domenico Rau, and Giovanna Attene
7. Cladistic Biogeography of Juglans (Juglandaceae) Based on Chloroplast DNA Intergenic Spacer Sequences, by Mallikarjuna K. Aradhya, Daniel Potter, and Charles J. Simon
8. Origin and Diversification of Chayote, by Hugh Cross, Rafael Lira Saade, and Timothy J. Motley
Part III. The Descent of Man: Human History and Crop Evolution
9. Using Modern Landraces of Wheat to Study the Origins of European Agriculture, by Terence A. Brown, Sarah Lindsay, and Robin G. Allaby
10. Breadfruit Origins, Diversity, and Human-Facilitated Distribution, by Nyree Zerega, Diane Ragone, and Timothy J. Motley
11. Genetic Relationship Between Dioscorea alata L. and D. nummularia Lum. as Revealed by AFLP Markers, by Roger Malapa, Jean-Louis Noyer, Jean-Leu Marchand, and Vincent Lebot
Part IV. Variation of Plants Under Selection: Agrodiversity and Germplasm Conservation
12. Evolution, Domestication, and Agrobiodiversity in the Tropical Crop Cassava, by Barbara A. Schaal, Kenneth M. Olsen, and Luiz J. C. B. Carvalho
13. Origins, Evolution, and Group Classification of Cultivated Potatoes, by David M. Spooner and Wilbert L. A. Hetterscheid
14. Evolution and Conservation of Clonally Propagated Crops: Insights from AFLP Data and Folk Taxonomy of the Andean Tuber Oca (Oxalis tuberosa ), by Eve Emshwiller
15. Crop Genetics on Modern Farms: Gene Flow Between Crop Populations, by Kenneth Birnbaum
Appendix I. Molecular Marker and Sequencing Methods and Related Terms, by Sarah M. Ward
Appendix II. Molecular Analyses, by Timothy J. Motley, Hugh Cross, Nyree Zerega, and Mallikarjuna K. Aradhya
Index

What People are Saying About This

Beryl Simpson

The authors assembled for Darwin's Harvest are first-rate and the stories they have to tell are interesting. New and surprising insights into several crops are presented in this book, which compiles a solid body of data on numerous crops in an easily accessible volume.

— Beryl Simpson, University of Texas at Austin

Michael J. Balick

Darwin's Harvest provides the reader with a rich understanding of how a variety of temperate and tropical crop plants were domesticated, offering a broad selection of research studies employing both traditional and contemporary tools. This book both sheds new light on ancient agricultural mysteries and discusses important conservation issues and strategies for food plant improvement. The editors are to be congratulated for bringing together a body of knowledge in this single volume that will be of great interest to researchers in agriculture, biology, anthropology, ecology, history, conservation, and food policy.

Brian M. Boom

The most cutting-edge analyses in crop plant studies by some of the biggest names in the field.

— Brian M. Boom, The New York Botanical Garden

Editorial Reviews

A fascinating collection of cutting-edge analyses.

Economic Botany - Charles R. Clement

A fascinating collection of cutting-edge analyses.

— Charles R. Clement

Economic Botany