The Human Mind as a common denominator in plant domestication

作者：Abbo Shahal^*; Lev Yadun Simcha; Gopher Avi

来源：Journal of Experimental Botany, 2014, 65(8): 1917-1920.

DOI：10.1093/jxb/eru068

• Automatic selection
• conscious selection
• crop evolution
• grain legumes domestication
• Science of the Concrete
• unconscious selection

Recent experiments demonstrated that deep sowing was not a general unconscious selection pressure underlying the increased seed size of domesticated legumes. We suggest the permanent need for human decision-making as a general factor.The role of conscious versus unconscious selection is a central issue in plant domestication. While some authors hold that domesticated plants arose due to unconscious dynamics driven by selection pressures exerted by the ancient cultivation regime, others attribute an indispensable role to conscious and knowledge-based selection as an imperative component of Neolithic Near Eastern plant domestication. Recent experimental work demonstrated that, contrary to commonly held views, deep seed burial as part of the ancient cultivation regime cannot be considered as a general selection pressure underlying the increased seed size of domesticated legumes compared with their wild ancestors. This is a robust conclusion since, in three out of the eight legume species studied from different world regions, there was no association between larger seed size and better seedling emergence from depth. We concur with the authors that these legume crops were most likely under various and multiple (often interacting) selection pressures under domestication, thereby causing the observed parallel/convergent evolution of their larger grain size. However, it is puzzling that these authors did not mention the ever-present common denominator in plant domestication, i.e. conscious human decision-making. In our view, the human Mind and the Science of the Concrete la Lvi-Strauss deserved to be discussed as an integral component of plant domestication.

• 出版日期2014-5