Kooperativer Bibliotheksverbund

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Format: 1 online resource (384p.)

ISBN: 9780231508094

Content: Darwin's Harvest addresses concerns that we are losing the diversity of crop plants that provide food for most of the world. With contributions from evolutionary biologists, geneticists, agronomists, molecular biologists, and anthropologists, this collection discusses how economic development, loss of heirloom varieties and wild ancestors, and modern agricultural techniques have endangered the genetic diversity needed to keep agricultural crops vital and capable of adaptation.Drawing on the most up-to-date data, the contributors review the utilization of molecular techniques to understand crop evolution. They explore current research on various crop plants of both temperate and tropical origin, including maize, sunflower, avocado, sugarcane, and wheat. The chapters in Darwin's Harvest also provide solid background for understanding many recent discoveries concerning the origins of crops and the influence of human migration and farming practices on the genetics of our modern foods.

Note: Frontmatter -- , CONTENTS -- , CONTRIBUTORS -- , 1. Crop Plants: Past, Present, and Future -- , PART 1. GENETICS AND ORIGIN OF CROPS. Evolution and Domestication -- , 2. Molecular Evidence and the Evolutionary History of the Domesticated Sunflower -- , 3. Molecular Evidence of Sugarcane Evolution and Domestication -- , 4. Maize Origins, Domestication, and Selection -- , 5. Contributions of Tripsacum to Maize Diversity -- , PART 2. SYSTEMATICS AND THE ORIGIN OF CROPS. Phylogenetic and Biogeographic Relationships -- , 6. Evolution of Genetic Diversity in Phaseolus vulgaris L. -- , 7. Cladistic Biogeography of Juglans ( Juglandaceae) Based on Chloroplast DNA Intergenic Spacer Sequences -- , 8. Origin and Diversifi cation of Chayote -- , PART 3. THE DESCENT OF MAN. Human History and Crop Evolution -- , 9. Using Modern Landraces of Wheat to Study the Origins of European Agriculture -- , 10. Breadfruit Origins, Diversity, and Human-Facilitated Distribution -- , 11. Genetic Relationship Between Dioscorea alata L. and D. nummularia Lam. as Revealed by AFLP Markers -- , PART 4. VARIATION OF PLANTS UNDER SELECTION. Agrodiversity and Germplasm Conservation -- , 12. Evolution, Domestication, and Agrobiodiversity in the Tropical Crop Cassava -- , 13. Origins, Evolution, and Group Classifi cation of Cultivated Potatoes -- , 14. Evolution and Conservation of Clonally Propagated Crops: Insights from AFLP Data and Folk Taxonomy of the Andean Tuber Oca ( Oxalis tuberosa ) -- , 15. Crop Genetics on Modern Farms: Gene Flow Between Crop Populations -- , Appendix II. Molecular Analyses -- , Index

Language: English

DOI: 10.7312/motl13316

URL: https://doi.org/10.7312/motl13316