The Evolution of Domestication in Cassava Unraveled through Historical Genomics and Archaeobotany

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Frontiers of Plant Domestication" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Cassava (‘manioc' or ‘yuca' regionally) is a staple food for 800 million people worldwide. It was domesticated in the southwestern Amazon ~7,000 years ago, and archaeobotanical evidence suggests that it dispersed widely, including through Central America, shortly thereafter. In the present day, it is most widely grown in Brazil and throughout sub-Saharan Africa. However, we know surprisingly little about its fundamental biodiversity and the domestication process. Here, we present new genomic data from historical collections which, combined with archaeobotanical records, begin to elucidate the evolution of domestication in cassava.

Cite this Record

The Evolution of Domestication in Cassava Unraveled through Historical Genomics and Archaeobotany. Logan Kistler, Fabio de Oliveira Freitas, Marcelo Simon, Robin Allaby. Presented at The 84th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Albuquerque, NM. 2019 ( tDAR id: 451807)

Spatial Coverage

min long: -81.914; min lat: -18.146 ; max long: -31.421; max lat: 11.781 ;

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23462