Title Shedding new light on the origin and spread of the brinjal eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) and its wild relatives Authors Aubriot, X; Knapp, S; Syfert, MM; Poczai, P; Buerki, S Date Submitted 2018-08-18 1Shedding new light on the origin and spread of the brinjal 2eggplant (Solanum melongena L.; Solanaceae) and its wild 3relatives 4 5Xavier Aubriot1, 2, Sandra Knapp1, Mindy Syfert1, Péter Poczai3, Sven Buerki1, 4 71 Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, 8England, UK. 92 Unité Mixte de Recherche 6553 Écosystèmes, Biodiversité, Évolution (ECOBIO), Observatoire des 10Sciences de l'Univers de Rennes, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université de Rennes 111, Rennes CEDEX, France. 123 Botany Unit, Finnish Museum of Natural History, University of Helsinki, PO Box 7, Helsinki FI- 1300014, Finland. 144 Department of Biological Sciences, Boise State University, 1910 University Drive, Boise, Idaho 1583725, U.S.A. 16 17Authors for correspondence: Xavier Aubriot, Tel: +33 623 744 393, Email: xavier.aubriot@univ- 18rennes1.fr; Sven Buerki, Tel: +1 208 426 3262, Email:
[email protected] 19 20ABSTRACT 21PREMISE OF THE STUDY: While brinjal eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) is the second most 22important solanaceaous vegetable crop, we lack firm knowledge of its evolutionary relationships. This 23in turn limits efficient use of crop wild relatives in eggplant improvement. Here, we examine the 24hypothesis of linear step-wise expansion of the eggplant group from Africa to Asia. 25METHODS: We use museum collections to generate nuclear and full-plastome data for all species of 26the eggplant clade. We combine a phylogenomic approach with distribution data to infer a 27biogeographic scenario for the clade.