A history of rye: How early farmers made plants genetically less flexible

Over the course of many thousands of years, humans turned rye into a cultivated plant. In doing so, they have considerably limited its genetic flexibility. Today, wild rye not only has a more diverse genetic make-up, it is able to recombine this more freely than its domesticated cousins. A research team led by Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) has demonstrated this in a new study published in the scientific journal „Molecular Biology and Evolution“. The results also explain why cultivated rye is less resistant than wild species to developments such as climate change.

Quelle: IDW Informationsdienst Wissenschaft