Apple Eden looks east

Wherever the garden of Eden may have been located, most people believe that the development of the modern apple is the result of hybridisations through the centuries of cultivation with wild species growing in Europe and elsewhere. But work carried out at the University of Oxford suggests an entirely different provenance for the apple: a remote and remarkable valley region on the borders of Kazakhstan and China. Barrie Juniper and colleagues at the department of plant sciences, have been looking at the genetics of apple cultivars and native species that occur in temperate regions of Europe and Asia. One of the group, geneticist Julian Robinson, has been using DNA analysis to assess differences and similarities between apple (Malus) species. Far from containing genetic sequences from several species, it appears that the genetic material of only one species closely resembles the modern-day cultivated form. 2001). This was M. sieversii which occurs in central Asia but generally carries small, cherry-sized fruit. Juniper and his team decided to begin a search for M. sieversii that could have given rise to the modern apple. With guides, they travelled to the newly accessible Ili valley, which straddles the Kazakhstan-China border to find a lush forest containing hundreds of apple trees of M. sieversii. " Every apple tree seemed to bear a different sort of fruit. Some were tiny and yellow like crab apples, others were round, red and as big as Bramleys, " says Juniper. " It was like a huge tangle, full of old, dying trees and young seedlings " he says. But how could these fruit have reached Europe? Interestingly, the forest lies on one of the ancient trade routes between China and Europe. So they could have been dispersed along the route. Our apples therefore may differ little in appearance, cultivation and genetics from those familiar to Persian farmers 2,500 years ago. Apple ties: the region around the Ili valley, which straddles the border between Kazekhstan and China, contains a remarkable forested region with many apple trees that may be the origin of our ubiquitous cultivated fruit.