Domestication of the neotropical tree Chrysophyllum cainito from a geographically limited yet genetically diverse gene pool in Panama Jennifer J. Petersen1, Ingrid M. Parker2,3 & Daniel Potter1 1Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, One Shields Avenue, Davis, California 95616 2Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 95064 3Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado 0843-03092, Balboa, Republic of Panama Keywords Abstract caimito, fruit trees, genetic diversity, Mesoamerica, Sapotaceae, semidomesticates. Species in the early stages of domestication, in which wild and cultivated forms co-occur, provide important opportunities to develop and test hypotheses about Correspondence the origins of crop species. Chrysophyllum cainito (Sapotaceae), the star apple Jennifer J. Petersen, Department of Plant or caimito, is a semidomesticated tree widely cultivated for its edible fruits; it is Sciences, Mail Stop 3, University of known to be native to the neotropics, but its precise geographic origins have California, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA not been firmly established. Here, we report results of microsatellite marker 95616. Tel: 530-754-6141; analyses supporting the hypothesis that the center of domestication for caimito Fax: 530-752-9659; E-mail:
[email protected] was the Isthmus of Panama, a region in which few crop species are believed to have originated, despite its importance as a crossroads for the dispersal of Funding information domesticated plants between North and South America. Our data suggest that This work was supported by the Davis caimito was domesticated in a geographically restricted area while incorporating Botanical Society, the UC Davis Center for a diverse gene pool. These results refute the generally accepted Antillean origin Biosystematics, Henry A.