Domesticated crop and ornamental plants evolved relatively recently through the artificial selection of key traits, including those affecting seed size and plant architecture. However, current domesticated elite lines are proving less resilient in the face of climate change compared to their genetically-rich wild relatives. With the rapid widespread use of sequencing technology and genome editing tools, new research is focused on the genomics and potential manipulation of wild relatives and other related feral lines to ameliorate existing domesticated lines or create new varieties. This special issue contains a collection of research and review papers discussing our current understanding of classical domestication traits as well as ongoing efforts towards de novo domestication. For more information, see editorial by David Jackson and Robin Buell (on pp. 1527-1528).
Cover image description: Left panels – Black hull of wild rice O. nivara acc. IRGC103824 (top left) and straw-white hull of cultivated rice O. sativa cv. PR124 (top right); highly shattering behaviour of mature panicle of O. nivara acc. IRGC104646 (middle left) and non-shattering panicle (middle right) of O. sativa cv. PR122 (images courtesy of Kishor Kumar, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Educational and Research Institute, India); Brassica oleracea growing on a cliffside in Helgoland, Germany (bottom panel, image courtesy of Michael Pisias, Univ. Missouri, USA). Centre panels – tassels of wild rice O. nivara acc. IRGC103824 (top, image supplied by K. Kumar), Brassica rapa grown in Italy (bottom; image courtesy of Alex McAlvay, New York Botanical Garden, USA). Right panels – B. oleracea ornamental garden cabbages (top), B. oleracea row crop cabbages (middle; images courtesy of M. Pisias); “Edo-dokoro” rhizome (bottom; image courtesy of Ryohei Terauchi, Kyoto Univ., Japan).
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