Published the most extensive analysis of the characteristics of food species
Published the most extensive analysis of the characteristics of food species
Published the most extensive analysis of the characteristics of food species
The plant and animal species that we use to produce our food, such as wheat or sheep, have their origin in wild ancestors that have been progressively domesticated since the Late Paleolithic to our days. In this context, Rey Juan Carlos University (URJC) (Spain) has led an international project to develop a global database on the evolution and characteristics of more than 1,000 species domesticated for food purposes.
"Our objective was double," explains Rubén Milla, the study's principal investigator. "In the first place, we sought to know if domesticated plants and animals belong to a few or many lineages and, secondly, to know if we can find common biological characteristics between them and their wild relatives".
The main finding of the work has been to determine that the characteristics of domesticated species are a subset of those found in the natural world. That is, although agricultural plants tend to produce large seeds, or domestic mammals are usually large species, these characteristics can also be found in wild species.
The article has been published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, a magazine of the prestigious Nature group, and it involves more than ten institutions from around the world. This work calls to expand the focus in the search for new species that can be used for human consumption intensively. The results could be used to identify what are the distinctive characteristics of the food species and thus facilitate the search for wild species of interest that show similar characteristics.
Wheat. (Photo: DICYT)
Researchers have found that domestic animals come from a few evolutionary lineages, mainly bovids such as cows, sheep or goats, and camelids such as camels, dromedaries or llamas. On the contrary, the food flora is very diverse in terms of its evolutionary origin.
"Although some of the main agricultural plants belong to a few botanical families, such as grasses or legumes, we find species of agricultural plants in many other families with diverse evolutionary relationships," says Milla. This study, therefore, provides the scientific community with a detailed database on food species and their wild relatives that was not available so far and that will facilitate future research in this area. (Source: URJC / DICYT)
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