2007/05/12 by Dorian Q. Fuller, Yushi Hu · 8 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Chemical Engineering · Chemistry · Engineering · #Agriculture #Agronomy #Analytical Chemistry and Sensors #Biological dispersal #Biology #Botanical Research and Chemistry #Botany #Catalysis #Chemistry #Crop #Domestication #Ecology #Electrochemical Analysis and Applications #Gas Sensing Nanomaterials and Sensors #Genetic and Environmental Crop Studies #Hydrogen #Hydrogen sensor #Legume Nitrogen Fixing Symbiosis #Materials science #Nanotechnology #Nanowire #Optoelectronics #Paleoethnobotany #Palladium #Photolithography #Photomask #Population #Radiata #Resist #Sativum #Vigna
paper · doi:10.1093/aob/mcm048
openalex publication_date 2008/09/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
These data suggest that in domesticated grasses, changes in grain size and shape evolved prior to non-shattering ears or panicles. Initial grain size increases may have evolved during the first centuries of cultivation, within perhaps 500-1000 years. Non-shattering infructescences were much slower, becoming fixed about 1000-2000 years later. This suggests a need to reconsider the role of sickle harvesting in domestication. Pulses, by contrast, do not show evidence for seed size increase in relation to the earliest cultivation, and seed size increase may be delayed by 2000-4000 years. This implies that conditions that were sufficient to select for larger seed size in Poaceae were not sufficient in Fabaceae. It is proposed that animal-drawn ploughs (or ards) provided the selection pressure for larger seeds in legumes. This implies different thresholds of selective pressure, for example in relation to differing seed ontogenetics and underlying genetic architecture in these families. Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) may show some similarities to the pulses in terms of a lag-time before truly larger-grained forms evolved.