Crop diversity is shaped by biological and social processes interacting at different spatiotemporal scales. Here, we combined population genetics and ethnobotany to investigate date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) diversity in Siwa Oasis, Egypt. Based on interviews with farmers and observation of practices in the field, we collected 149 date palms from Siwa Oasis and 27 uncultivated date palms from abandoned oases in the surrounding desert. Using genotyping data from 18 nuclear and plastid microsatellite loci, we confirmed that some named types each constitute a clonal line, that is, a true‐to‐type cultivar. We also found that others are collections of clonal lines, that is, ethnovarieties, or even unrelated samples, that is, local categories. This alters current assessments of agrobiodiversity, which are visibly underestimated, and uncovers the impact of low‐intensity, but highly effective, farming practices on biodiversity. These hardly observable practices, hypothesized by ethnographic survey and confirmed by genetic analysis, are enabled by the way Isiwans conceive and classify living beings in their oasis, which do not quite match the way biologists do: a classic disparity of etic versus. emic categorizations. In addition, we established that Siwa date palms represent a unique and highly diverse genetic cluster, rather than a subset of North African and Middle Eastern palm diversity. As previously shown, North African date palms display evidence of introgression by the wild relative Phoenix theophrasti, and we found that the uncultivated date palms from the abandoned oases share even more alleles with this species than cultivated palms in this region. The study of Siwa date palms could hence be a key to the understanding of date palm diversification in North Africa. Integration of ethnography and population genetics promoted the understanding of the interplay between diversity management in the oasis (short‐time scale), and the origins and dynamic of diversity through domestication and diversification (long‐time scale).

中文翻译：

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结合民族植物学和遗传学来评估作物农业生物多样性及其进化的必要性：埃及锡瓦绿洲枣椰树（Phoenix dactylifera L.）的案例研究。


作物多样性是由不同时空尺度相互作用的生物和社会过程决定的。在这里，我们结合群体遗传学和民族植物学来研究埃及锡瓦绿洲的枣椰树（ Phoenix dactylifera L.）多样性。根据对农民的采访和田间实践的观察，我们从锡瓦绿洲收集了 149 棵枣椰树，并从周围沙漠的废弃绿洲收集了 27 棵未栽培的枣椰树。利用 18 个核和质体微卫星位点的基因分型数据，我们确认了一些命名类型各自构成一个克隆系，即一个真实类型品种。我们还发现其他的是克隆系的集合，即民族品种，甚至是不相关的样本，即局部类别。这改变了目前明显被低估的农业生物多样性评估，并揭示了低强度但高效的农业实践对生物多样性的影响。这些难以观察的做法是通过人种学调查假设并通过基因分析证实的，是由伊西瓦人在绿洲中构思和分类生物的方式实现的，这与生物学家的方式不太相符：典型的民族与民族的差异。主位分类。此外，我们确定锡瓦枣椰树代表了一个独特且高度多样化的遗传簇，而不是北非和中东棕榈多样性的子集。如前所述，北非枣椰树显示出野生近缘种Phoenix theophrasti基因渗入的证据，我们发现来自废弃绿洲的未栽培枣椰树与该物种共享的等位基因甚至比该地区栽培的棕榈树还要多。 因此，对锡瓦枣椰树的研究可能是了解北非枣椰树多样化的关键。民族志和群体遗传学的整合促进了对绿洲多样性管理（短期尺度）与驯化和多样化（长期尺度）多样性的起源和动态之间相互作用的理解。