A study indicates that the Mexican region of Yucatán is the cradle of cultivation of what is now the most important source of natural textile fiber in the world.
Cultivated cotton is the world’s most important source of natural textile fiber, but until now it was not known exactly where it was domesticated.
A new study indicates that both perennial and modern annual forms have their genetic lineage in the region of Yucatannot Mexico.
A team of researchers led by Iowa State University, in the USA, a study in PNAS analyzed samples from wild cotton populations in Florida, the Yucatan peninsula and the Caribbean islands of Puerto Rico and Guadeloupe.
The domestication of cotton, according to the study, was a gradual processcharacterized by the accumulation of mutations over a long period, rather than rapid changes and large mutations, as often happens in other domesticated crops.
Collecting the genomic sequences of these populations made it possible to analyze the genetic diversity throughout the distribution area of wild cotton, as well as the history of the domestication of this crop.
Yucatán, birthplace of cotton domestication
The analyzes “confirm the hypothesis that the Yucatán peninsula, in Mexico, is the center of domestication, from where the original perennial forms and, later, the modern annual varieties were derived”, highlights the study.
Data on population structure and phylogenomic analyzes indicate that the northwestern Yucatán has greater genetic diversity compared to the smaller and more dispersed populations of the northeastern Yucatán peninsula and the Caribbean basin.
Still, the study adds, populations in Florida and other regions of the Caribbean basin maintain exclusive pockets of diversity.
The study quantified diversity in wild cotton populations and revealed the origin of the genetic heritage of cultivated varieties, the genetic bottlenecks that accompanied domestication, and the possible ecological and human processes that determined current diversity and geographic distribution.
