Evolutionary “Bet-Hedgers” under Cultivation: Investigating the Domestication of Erect Knotweed (Polygonum erectum L.) using Growth Experiments

TitleEvolutionary “Bet-Hedgers” under Cultivation: Investigating the Domestication of Erect Knotweed (Polygonum erectum L.) using Growth Experiments
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2017
AuthorsMueller, NG
JournalHuman Ecology
Volume451072rspb2010070712131513581318177327257912425250103106757712621
Issue2851313232181233165654
Pagination189 - 203
Date PublishedJan-04-2017
ISSN0300-7839
KeywordsDomestication, Eastern agricultural complex North America, Erect knotweed, Evolutionary bet-hedging, Experimental archaeology
Abstract

Evolutionary “bet-hedging” refers to situations in which organisms sacrifice mean fitness for a reduction in fitness variance over time. Germination heteromorphism is the quintessential and most well understood bet-hedging strategy. It has evolved in many different plants, including the wild progenitors of some crops. Erect knotweed (Polygonum erectum L.), an annual seed crop, was cultivated in Eastern North America between c. 3000–600 BP. By c. 900 BP, cultivation had produced a domesticated subspecies with greatly reduced germination heteromorphism. Field observations and greenhouse experiments suggest that cultivation eliminated the selective pressures that maintain the bet-hedging strategy in erect knotweed, while humans also directly selected for seeds that germinated reliably and for seedlings with rapid early growth. The protection provided to erect knotweed under cultivation explains the domestication syndrome that has been observed in some archaeological assemblages. Dormancy provides seeds a means of escaping adverse conditions in time, while dispersal provides an escape in space. Farmers relaxed selective pressures that maintained dormancy in erect knotweed by acting as seed dispersers, spreading disturbance-adapted plants to predictable and protected environments, and by saving and exchanging seed stock. Experimental data also indicate that adaptive transgenerational plasticity may have been working against the expression of domestication syndrome in this case.

URLhttp://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10745-016-9881-2http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10745-016-9881-2.pdfhttp://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10745-016-9881-2.pdfhttp://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10745-016-9881-2/fulltext.html
DOI10.1007/s10745-016-9881-2