Tetraploid emmer wheat (Triticum turgidum ssp. dicoccon) is a progenitor of the world's most widely grown crop, hexaploid bread wheat (Triticum aestivum), as well as the direct ancestor of tetraploid durum wheat (T. turgidum subsp. turgidum). Emmer was one of the first cereals to be domesticated in the old world; it was cultivated from around 9700 BC in the Levant1,2 and subsequently in south-western Asia, northern Africa and Europe with the spread of Neolithic agriculture3,4. Here, we report a whole-genome sequence from a museum specimen of Egyptian emmer wheat chaff, 14C dated to the New Kingdom, 1130-1000 BC. Its genome shares haplotypes with modern domesticated emmer at loci that are associated with shattering, seed size and germination, as well as within other putative domestication loci, suggesting that these traits share a common origin before the introduction of emmer to Egypt. Its genome is otherwise unusual, carrying haplotypes that are absent from modern emmer. Genetic similarity with modern Arabian and Indian emmer landraces connects ancient Egyptian emmer with early south-eastern dispersals, whereas inferred gene flow with wild emmer from the Southern Levant signals a later connection. Our results show the importance of museum collections as sources of genetic data to uncover the history and diversity of ancient cereals.

中文翻译：

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具有 3000 年历史的埃及二粒小麦基因组揭示了传播和驯化历史。


四倍体二粒小麦 (Triticum turgidum ssp. dicoccon) 是世界上种植最广泛的作物六倍体面包小麦 (Triticum aestivum) 的祖先，也是四倍体硬粒小麦 (T. turgidum subsp. turgidum) 的直接祖先。二粒小麦是旧世界最早驯化的谷物之一。它于公元前 9700 年左右在黎凡特 1,2 开始种植，随后随着新石器时代农业的传播在西南亚、北非和欧洲 3,4 开始种植。在这里，我们报告了埃及二粒小麦糠博物馆标本的全基因组序列，14C 可以追溯到公元前 1130-1000 年的新王国。它的基因组与现代驯化的二粒小麦在与破碎、种子大小和发芽相关的基因座以及其他假定的驯化基因座内共享单倍型，这表明这些性状在二粒小麦引入埃及之前具有共同的起源。它的基因组在其他方面都很不寻常，携带着现代二粒小麦所没有的单倍型。与现代阿拉伯和印度二粒小麦地方品种的遗传相似性将古埃及二粒小麦与早期东南部扩散联系起来，而推断的基因流与来自黎凡特南部的野生二粒小麦则表明了后来的联系。我们的研究结果表明，博物馆藏品作为遗传数据来源对于揭示古代谷物的历史和多样性具有重要意义。