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Where was wheat domesticated?

Nature Plants volume 9, pages 1201–1202 (2023)Cite this article

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Matters Arising to this article was published on 24 July 2023

The Original Article was published on 16 March 2023

arising from X. Zhao et al. Nature Plants https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-023-01367-3 (2023)

Wheat’s domestication has long intrigued us due to its importance as a crop. Zhao et al.1 definitively identified Turkey (the northern Fertile Crescent or northern Levant) as the location of wheat domestication using the phylogeny of genes whose mutated forms enabled wheat to be harvested efficiently. However, our analysis reveals that at least one of the two mutations, which can be found in most domesticated wheat globally, actually originated from the southern Levant (Israel, Syria and Lebanon). These findings align with other genetic and archaeological evidence, revealing a complex domestication process for wheat2,3,4,5.

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Fig. 1: Phylogenetic trees of the TtBtr1-A and TtBtr1-B genes revealing genetic relationships in wheat domestication.

References

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Acknowledgements

We thank H. Sela for useful discussions. This research was funded by the Israel Science Foundation (ISF grant numbers 1431/22 and 2223/22).

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  1. Department of Evolutionary and Environmental Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences and the Institute of Evolution, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

    Yael Lev-Mirom & Assaf Distelfeld

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  1. Yael Lev-Mirom
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  2. Assaf Distelfeld
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Y.L.-M analysed the data, A.D. supervised the findings of this work, and both authors wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Assaf Distelfeld.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature Plants thanks Alexandra Przewieslik-Allen and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Lev-Mirom, Y., Distelfeld, A. Where was wheat domesticated?. Nat. Plants 9, 1201–1202 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-023-01467-0

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