Technology has revolutionized agriculture in myriad ways, but a new study in Current Biology traced how ancient farming practices shaped the evolution of a crucial staple crop: wheat.
Researchers from the University of Sheffield published a press release about what the study's authors dubbed "warrior wheat," early domesticated varieties of wheat that became dominant due to "a significantly stronger competitive ability than their wild ancestors."
In the study's abstract, the authors explained that farmers of the distant past endeavored to adapt "wild plants" for ongoing human cultivation, citing gaps in modern understanding of the specific practices involved for certain crops.
During the study, they examined archaeological evidence from regions with the most extensive historical data to analyze wheat domestication over a period of "at least 1,000-2,000 years."
As it turned out, our wheat-growing ancestors stumbled upon a crop-bolstering strategy that favored aggressive, competitive wheats capable of competing for valuable resources like water and sunlight.
The authors examined "three independent domestication events" — the precise, often long-term process by which a species becomes suited for human cultivation — across wheat species and observed a trend: Domesticated landraces exhibited more aggressive traits than wild ones.
A second experiment and repeated simulations yielded similar findings.
One of the traits they consistently spotted among "warrior wheats" pertained to canopy leaves, as varieties with larger, taller top leaves allowed competitive landraces to access sunlight more easily while "shading out" shorter plants with smaller canopies.
ScienceDaily profiled the research Wednesday, quoting professor Colin Osborne, who co-authored the research.
He explained how and why modern breeding practices had reversed those evolutionary trends.
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"While evolution has favored strong competitors, modern farming packs crops tightly into fields for high yields. This practice needs crops that are able to cooperate, not compete, and has meant modern breeders needed to reverse the unhelpful effects of evolution," Osborne said.
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