Domestication of the Amazonian fruit tree cupuaçu may have stretched over the past 8000 years.

Colli-Silva, Matheus; Richardson, James E.; Neves, Eduardo G.; Watling, Jennifer; Figueira, Antonio; Pirani, José Rubens

Domestication of the Amazonian fruit tree cupuaçu may have stretched over the past 8000 years.

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Journal article

Creator (person)

Colli-Silva, Matheus

Richardson, James E.

Neves, Eduardo G.

Watling, Jennifer

Figueira, Antonio

Pirani, José Rubens

Date published

November 1, 2023

Abstract

Amazonia, one of the largest and most biodiverse ecosystems on Earth, is a significant yet less-known arena for ancient plant domestication. Here, we traced the origins of ( ), an Amazonian tree crop closely related to cacao ( ), cherished for its flavorful seed-pulp, by employing an extensive genomic analysis based on data from four sites in Brazil. Our results indicate that is a domesticated variant of its wild relative, ( ), probably originating from the Middle-Upper Rio Negro basin. A first phase of domestication is observed through a genetic bottleneck that we estimated to have occurred 5000–8000 years before the present. Moreover, we found further reductions in genetic diversity that we estimated to have occurred during the modern era. This is consistent with a second phase of domestication that was accompanied by an increase in the geographic distribution of over the last two centuries. Unraveling ’s origins adds it to the roster of plants domesticated by Amazonian indigenous people in the early to mid-Holocene. Our results suggest that Amazonia’s current patterns of genetic diversity and distribution of domesticated plants were influenced by both pre-Columbian and modern histories.

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Priority 4: Accelerated Taxonomy

Funder

Funder name	Awards
Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, Brazil	Finance Code 001
Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo, Brazil	2020/01375-1 - 2020/10206-9
Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, Brazil	Grant ID 310645/2021-2
Ministério do Meio Ambiente, Brazil	"PAT (Plano de Ação Territorial) Espinhaço Mineiro” initiative, which received funding from the through the ProEspécies Initiative.