Human genetic testing has evolved over the recent decades, allowing people to find their ancestors and even determine specific percentages of their heritage.
Human genetic testing has evolved over the recent decades, allowing people to find their ancestors and even determine specific percentages of their heritage. Much like the advances in human genetic testing recently popularized by commercial organizations have allowed people to gain a better understanding of their ancestry, scientists are now a step closer to determining a genetic family tree for vegetables by linking biology with computer science.
“Domestication of plants — the process of adapting wild plants for human use — happened a long time ago before we knew about genetics,” said Makenzie Mabry, a doctoral student of biological sciences. “Initially in wild plants there is a big pool of genes, and domestication only uses a few of those genes. Therefore, we often miss out on other possible genes that may be better than the current ones. By identifying the ancestors of our domesticated plants, we can take the evolutionary jump and go back in time to determine the genes that weren’t initially selected in domestication — genes that could lead to more healthy or more nutritious plants or plants adapted to different climates — and add those back into our current domesticated plants.”
In the new study, a team of multi-institution scientists led by the University of Missouri challenged prior theories of the origins of three vegetables — canola, rutabaga and Siberian kale — by mapping the genetic family tree of these leafy greens.
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Photo: A team of multi-institution scientists led by the University of Missouri challenged prior theories of the origins of three vegetables — canola, rutabaga and Siberian kale — by mapping the genetic family tree of these leafy greens. Photo Credit: University of Missouri
