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Baligang is a Neolithic site on a northern tributary of the middle Yangtze and provides a long archaeobotanical sequence from the Seventh Millennium BC upto the First Millennium BC. It provides evidence for developments in rice and millet agriculture influenced by shifting cultural affiliation with the north (Yangshao and Longshan) and south (Qujialing and Shijiahe) between 4300 and 1800 BC. This paper reports on plant macro-remains (seeds), from systematic flotation of 123 samples (1700 litres), producing more than 10,000 identifiable remains. The earliest Pre-Yangshao occupation of the sites provide evidence for cultivation of rice (Oryza sativa) between 6300–6700 BC. This rice appears already domesticated in on the basis of a dominance of non-shattering spikelet bases. However, in terms of grain size changes has not yet finished, as grains are still thinner than more recent domesaticated rice and are closer in grain shape to wild rices. This early rice was cultivated alongside collection of wild staple foods, especially acorns (Quercus/Lithicarpus sensu lato). In later periods the sites has evidence for mixed farming of both rice and millets (Setaria italica and Panicum miliaceum). Soybean appears on the site in the Shijiahe period (ca.2500 BC) and wheat (Triticum cf. aestivum) in the Late Longshan levels (2200–1800 BC). Weed flora suggests an intensification of rice agriculture over time with increasing evidence of wetland weeds. We interpret these data as indicating early opportunistic cultivation of alluvial floodplains and some rainfed rice, developing into more systematic and probably irrigated cultivation starting in the Yangshao period, which intensified in the Qujialing and Shijiahe period, before a shift back to an emphasis on millets with the Late Longshan cultural influence from the north. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a response, both to Fuller et al.'s recent criticism of Chinese research on rice domestication, as lacking evidence, and to their argument for the beginning of rice domestication around 4000 BC in the lower Yangzi River. We first survey previous publications that discuss the process from wild rice collection to rice domestication in China, and then examine early rice remains from the perspectives of rice morphology and archaeological context. We focus on three aspects: the timing of the initial rice domestication in the Yangzi River region; the earliest presence of domesticated rice in the Lower Yangzi and Huai River regions; and the implications of changes in rice grain sizes in archaeological assemblages. We also discuss problems relating to the presence of immature rice remains in the archaeological record, grain size increase and overall grain shape, which are three of the criteria used by Fuller et al. for distinguishing domesticated from wild rice. Based on published data and our research on rice, we demonstrate that by the early Holocene (9000 cal. BP), Neolithic people in both north and south China may have been harvesting wild rice and initiating rice cultivation that eventually led to domestication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Legumes and cereals, which provide different nutrients, are cultivated as coupled crops in most centers of plant domestication worldwide. However, as the only legume domesticated in China, the spatio-temporal distribution of soybeans and its status in the millet- and rice-based agricultural system of the Neolithic and Bronze Ages remains elusive. Here, archaeobotanical evidence of soybeans (n=254), millet (n=462), rice (n=482), and zooarchaeological evidence of fish (n=138) were synthesized to elucidate the phenomenon of coupled or decoupled cereals and legumes in prehistoric China. During the Neolithic and Bronze Ages, soybeans was mostly confined to northern China and rarely found in southern China, serving as a companion to millet. In contrast, fish remains have been widely found in southern China, indicating a continuous reliance on fish as a staple food besides rice. Thus, an antipodal pattern of millet-soybeans and rice-fish agricultural systems may have been established in northern and southern China since the late Yangshao period (6000-5000 cal BP) respectively. These two agricultural systems were not only complementary in terms of diet, but they also exhibited positive interactions and feedback in the coculture system. Consequently, these two systems enabled the sustainable intensification of agriculture and served as the basis for the emergence of complex societies and early states in the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background China has been successful in breeding hybrid rice strains, but is now facing challenges to develop new hybrids with high-yielding potential, better grain quality, and tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses. This paper reviews the most significant advances in hybrid rice breeding in China, and presents a recent study on fine-mapping quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for yield traits. Scope By exploiting new types of male sterility, hybrid rice production in China has become more diversified. The use of inter-subspecies crosses has made an additional contribution to broadening the genetic diversity of hybrid rice and played an important role in the breeding of super rice hybrids in China. With the development and application of indica-inclined and japonica-inclined parental lines, new rice hybrids with super high-yielding potential have been developed and are being grown on a large scale. DNA markers for subspecies differentiation have been identified and applied, and marker-assisted selection performed for the development of restorer lines carrying disease resistance genes. The genetic basis of heterosis in highly heterotic hybrids has been studied, but data from these studies are insufficient to draw sound conclusions. In a QTL study using stepwise residual heterozygous lines, two linked intervals harbouring QTLs for yield traits were resolved, one of which was delimited to a 125-kb region. Conclusions Advances in rice genomic research have shed new light on the genetic study and germplasm utilization in rice. Molecular marker-assisted selection is a powerful tool to increase breeding efficiency, but much work remains to be done before this technique can be extended from major genes to QTLs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Tea is the world’s most popular non-alcoholic beverage. China and India are known to be the largest tea producing countries and recognized as the centers for the domestication of the tea plant (Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze). However, molecular studies on the origin, domestication and relationships of the main teas, China type, Assam type and Cambod type are lacking. Methodology/Principal Findings: Twenty-three nuclear microsatellite markers were used to investigate the genetic diversity, relatedness, and domestication history of cultivated tea in both China and India. Based on a total of 392 samples, high levels of genetic diversity were observed for all tea types in both countries. The cultivars clustered into three distinct genetic groups (i.e. China tea, Chinese Assam tea and Indian Assam tea) based on STRUCTURE, PCoA and UPGMA analyses with significant pairwise genetic differentiation, corresponding well with their geographical distribution. A high proportion (30%) of the studied tea samples were shown to possess genetic admixtures of different tea types suggesting a hybrid origin for these samples, including the Cambod type. Conclusions: We demonstrate that Chinese Assam tea is a distinct genetic lineage from Indian Assam tea, and that China tea sampled from India was likely introduced from China directly. Our results further indicate that China type tea, Chinese Assam type tea and Indian Assam type tea are likely the result of three independent domestication events from three separate regions across China and India. Our findings have important implications for the conservation of genetic stocks, as well as future breeding programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Moving crops outside of their original centers of domestication was sometimes a challenging process. Because of its substantial heat requirements, moving rice agriculture outside of its homelands of domestication was not an easy process for farmers in the past. Using crop niche models, we examine the constraints faced by ancient farmers and foragers as they moved rice to its most northerly extent in Ancient China: Shandong province. Contrary to previous arguments, we find that during the climatic optimum rice could have been grown in the region. Climatic cooling following this date had a clear impact on the distribution of rice, one that may have placed adaptive pressure on rice to develop a temperate phenotype. Following the development of this temperate phenotype, rice agriculture could once again become implanted in select areas of north-eastern China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Beiqian site, located in Jimo city, Qingdao, went through three archaeological excavations, and a large number of human and animal bones in the Dawenkou culture and the Zhou Dynasty period were unearthed. By carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis, the diet of ancestors is expected to be recovered, and the domesticated plants and animals will be discussed. The investigated results showed that the food structure of ancestors in both periods included food crops, mainly C4 foods, and meat, mainly marine shellfish and livestock. For domestic pigs, they mainly eat C3 plants, and were affected by the lifestyle of ancestors. This study also showed that the diet of ancestors is the shellfish rather than marine fish despite the Beiqian site is located near the shoreline. We can conclude that the diet of ancestors in Dawenkou culture period included millet crops (C4 plants), shellfish, marine food, and livestock, representing the lifestyle of farming, domestication, and fishing, supplemented by hunting. In the Zhou dynasty period the meat resource was enriched by domesticated animals and marine fisheries, and the living conditions were significantly improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of wild barley from Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in the origin and domestication of cultivated barley has long been underestimated. Population-based phylogenetic analyses were performed to study the origin and genetic diversity of Chinese domesticated barley, and address the possibility that the Tibetan region in China was an independent center of barley domestication. Wild barley (Hordeum vulgare ssp. spontaneum) populations from Southwest Asia, Central Asia, and Tibet along with domesticated barley from China were analyzed using two nuclear genes. Our results showed that Tibetan wild barley distinctly diverged from Southwest Asian (Near East) wild barley, that Central Asian wild barley is related to Southwest Asian wild barley, and that Chinese domesticated barley shares the same haplotypes with Tibetan wild barley. Phylogenetic analysis showed a close relationship between Chinese domesticated barley and the Tibetan wild barley, suggesting that Tibetan wild barley was the ancestor of Chinese domesticated barley. Our results favor the polyphyletic origin for cultivated barley. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Near East Fertile Crescent is well recognized as a primary center of barley origin, diversity, and domestication. A large number of wild barleys have been collected from the Tibetan Plateau, which is characterized by an extreme environment. We used genome-wide diversity array technology markers to analyze the genotypic division between wild barley from the Near East and Tibet. Our results confirmed the existence of Tibetan wild barley and suggested that the split between the wild barleys in the Near East and those in Tibet occurred around 2.76 million years ago (Mya). To test the concept of polyphyletic domestication of barley, we characterized a set of worldwide cultivated barley. Some Chinese hulless and six-rowed barleys showed a close relationship with Tibetan wild barley but showed no common ancestor with other cultivated barley. Our data support the concept of polyphyletic domestication of cultivated barley and indicate that the Tibetan Plateau and its vicinity is one of the centers of domestication of cultivated barley. The current results may be highly significant in exploring the elite germplasm for barley breeding, especially against cold and drought stresses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern crops have usually experienced domestication selection and subsequent genetic improvement (post-domestication selection). Chinese waxy maize, which originated from non-glutinous domesticated maize (Zea mays ssp. mays), provides a unique model for investigating the post-domestication selection of maize. In this study, the genetic diversity of six key genes in the starch pathway was investigated in a glutinous population that included 55 Chinese waxy accessions, and a selective bottleneck that resulted in apparent reductions in diversity in Chinese waxy maize was observed. Significant positive selection in waxy (wx) but not amylose extender1 (ae1) was detected in the glutinous population, in complete contrast to the findings in non-glutinous maize, which indicated a shift in the selection target from ae1 to wx during the improvement of Chinese waxy maize. Our results suggest that an agronomic trait can be quickly improved into a target trait with changes in the selection target among genes in a crop pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]