Cross-species hybridization and the origin of North African date palms
Abstract
Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is one of the oldest tree crop species in the world and is a major fruit crop of arid regions of the Middle East and North Africa. We use whole-genome sequence data from a large sample of P. dactylifera and its wild relatives to show that hybridization between date palms and Phoenix theophrasti Grueter—a species endemic to the Eastern Mediterranean—is associated with the diversification of date palm.
- Publication:
-
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
- Pub Date:
- January 2019
- DOI:
- 10.1073/pnas.1817453116
- Bibcode:
- 2019PNAS..116.1651F