Plantae Curiosity

A study on citrines investigated the centre of origin of citrus species. Analyzing hybrids and admixed genomes they could find information on the domestication of mandarin, sweet oranges and other citrus. Wu et al . (2018) analyzed 60 accessions from diverse citrus germplasms and studied their relationship by performing whole genome sequencings. They found that mandarins contain pummelo admixture. The process of admixture is the result of interbreeding lineages from distinct sources and further introduction within a population (Keller and Taylor, 2010). This admixture was found to be corelated with fruit size and acidity, suggesting pummelo introgression as taking part in the selection of palatable mandarins during domestication, which requires reduced acidity (Baldwin, 1993). Palatable mandarins demonstrated pummelo admixture in part of the genome, opposite to acidic mandarins, proving the previous statement since, in mandarins, palatability is linked to pummelo introgression at a lo...

Domesticated genes can be identified and isolated by using technologies as quantitative trait locus ( QTL) analysis, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and whole genome resequencing studies. GWAS identifies significant associations between genes and phenotypic traits by using markers, focusing on single-nucleotide polymorphisms  (SNPs) in the genome and linkage disequilibrium to provide full coverage (Meyer and Purugganan, 2013) . Quantitative Trait Locus (QTL) mapping (or Linkage mapping)  is a technique that is among the first used in the study of domesticated traits (Doebley et al., 2006; Gross and Olsen, 2010). According to Meyer and Purugganan (2013), QTL is defined as a “genomic region with a gene (or multiple linked genes) that contains mutations which result in phenotypic variation in populations” (Meyer and Purugganan, 2013). And the main goal of the QTL mapping is to help study less understood phenotypes by characterizing (number, location, and impact...