AFLP data and the origins of domesticated crops

Abstract

Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) datasets have been used to construct neighbor-joining trees from which monophyletic origins for crops such as einkorn wheat, barley, and emmer wheat have been inferred. We simulated several different multiple domestication scenarios for an imaginary cereal crop and examined the resulting domesticated populations. The simulations showed that the population biology aspects of the domestication process can result in independently domesticated populations merging in such a way that a monophyletic origin is erroneously inferred when the resulting population is examined by AFLP genotyping and neighbor-joining analysis. The results bring into question the use of this method to infer the origins of real crops.Key words: AFLPs, agriculture, neighbor-joining, plant domestication.