Molecular Biology and Evolution, doi:10.1093/molbev/msm077
Grinding up Wheat: a Massive Loss of Nucleotide Diversity Since
Domestication A Haudry et al. Several demographic and selective
events occurred during the domestication of wheat from the
allotetraploid wild emmer (Triticum turgidum ssp. dicoccoides).
Cultivated wheat has since been affected by other historical
events. We analysed nucleotide diversity at 21 loci in a sample
of 101 individuals representing four taxa corresponding to
representative steps in the recent evolution of wheat (wild,
domesticated, cultivated durum and bread wheats), to unravel the
evolutionary history of cultivated wheats and to quantify its
impact on genetic diversity. Sequence relationships are
consistent with a single domestication event and identify two
genetically different groups of bread wheat. The wild group is
not highly polymorphic, with only 212 polymorphic sites among
the 21,720 bp sequenced, and, during domestication, diversity
was further reduced in cultivated for