Awned versus awnless wheat spikes: does it matter?

Awnless and awned wheat is found across the globe. Archeological and historical records show that the wheat spike was predominantly awned across the many millennia following domestication. Thus, ancient farmers did not select against awns at least until the last millennium. Here, we describe the evo...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Sanchez-Bragado, Rut, Molero, Gemma, Araus Ortega, José Luis, Slafer, Gustavo A.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2023
País:España
Institución:Universitat de Lleida (UdL)
Repositorio:Repositori Obert UdL
OAI Identifier:oai:repositori.udl.cat:10459.1/463471
Acceso en línea:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tplants.2022.10.010
https://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/463471
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Wheat awns
Spike photosynthesis
Yield
Yield components
Awn evolution
Descripción
Sumario:Awnless and awned wheat is found across the globe. Archeological and historical records show that the wheat spike was predominantly awned across the many millennia following domestication. Thus, ancient farmers did not select against awns at least until the last millennium. Here, we describe the evolution and domestication of wheat awns, quantifying their role in spike photosynthesis and yield under contrasting environments. Awns increase grain weight directly (increasing the size of all grains) or indirectly (increasing the failure of distal grains), but not as a consequence of additional spike photosynthesis. However, a trade-off is produced through decreasing grain number. Thus, favorable effects of awns on yield are not consistently found across environments.