Domestication is an evolutionary process of species divergence in which morphological and physiological changes result from the cultivation/tending of plant or animal species by a mutualistic partner, most prominently humans. Darwin used domestication as an analogy to evolution by natural selection although there is strong debate on whether this process of species evolution by human association...

domestication of animals has had some important effects on physiology, morphology, behavior and well-being of domesticated animals. conscious or goal directed selections on animals for increasing their productions has accelerated the rate of the changes, leading to some well-being defections. this paper notes some aspects of animal domestication in context of genetic science. then explains how ...

Despite decades of research across multiple disciplines, the early history of horse domestication remains poorly understood. On the basis of current evidence from archaeology, mitochondrial DNA, and Y-chromosomal sequencing, a number of different domestication scenarios have been proposed, ranging from the spread of domestic horses out of a restricted primary area of domestication to the domest...

Crop domestication frequently began with the selection of plants that did not naturally shed ripe fruits or seeds. The reduction in grain shattering that led to cereal domestication involved genetic loci of large effect. The molecular basis of this key domestication transition, however, remains unknown. Here we show that human selection of an amino acid substitution in the predicted DNA binding...

Selection and domestication of plants with genes that prevent grains from shattering in cereals was essential for human civilization's transition to agriculture-based societies. In this issue, Pourkheirandish et al. show that domestication of barley required evolution of a molecular system distinct from other grains, such as rice and maize, and reveal that present-day cultivars derive from two ...

Domestication has induced major genetic changes in crop plants to satisfy human needs and as a consequence of adaptation to agroecosystems. This adaptation might have affected root exudate composition, which can influence the interactions in the rhizosphere. Here, using two different soil types (sand, soil), we provide an original example of the impact of domestication and crop evolution on roo...

Amazonia offers some striking contrasts to better-known regions of the world, notably the Middle East, in which plants were domesticated. These contrasts are pertinent to attempts to formulate general principles of evolution under domestication, particularly now that some of these are being critically reexamined. Topics covered in this paper include a generally applicable definition of plant do...

Domestication research has largely focused on identification of morphological and genetic differences between extant populations of crops and their wild relatives. Little attention has been paid to the potential effects of environment despite substantial known changes in climate from the time of domestication to modern day. In recent research, the exposure of teosinte (i.e., wild maize) to envi...

Domestication, a process of increasing mutual dependence between human societies and the plant and animal populations they target, has long been an area of interest in genetics and archaeology. Geneticists seek out markers of domestication in the genomes of domesticated species, both past and present day. Archaeologists examine the archaeological record for complementary markers--evidence of th...

The domestication scenario that led to Asian rice (Oryza sativa) is a contentious topic. Here, we have reanalyzed a previously published large-scale wild and domesticated rice data set, which was also analyzed by two studies but resulted in two contrasting domestication models. We suggest that the analysis of false-positive selective sweep regions and phylogenetic analysis of concatenated genom...