ISHS Acta Horticulturae 275: International Symposium on the Culture of Subtropical and Tropical Fruits and Crops
FUGITIVE EARTH DOMAINS AS SOURCES OF USEFUL FRUIT AND NUT GENES |
| Author: | D. Noël |
| Abstract:
In the book 'Nuteeriat' I have shown how the past movements of Earth Domains (portions of the Earth's crust) can be traced from a study of present plant distributions. In the current paper I show how this knowledge of domain movements can be used to locate genetic material likely to be of value in the breeding and development of fruits and nuts, particularly ones for subtropical areas. This paper reviews the broad features of domain movements on Earth, whether as isolated island domains, microdomain shuffle belts, or domain and microdomain aggregates. These domain movements have been mainly away from the equator, and have carried relatives of tropical species into subtropical and temperate zones. Through natural selection, these 'fugitive' species have acquired. characteristics suiting them to their new non-tropical surroundings. Nevertheless, they remain closely related to their tropical cousins, and so can act as a gene source for combining cool-climate habitat characteristics with the desirable fruiting characteristics of their tropical relatives. Examples are given of the relevance of climatic characteristics such as cold tolerance, drought tolerance, and seasonality in the development of such fruit and nut genera as Diospyros, Artocarpus, Litsea, Canarium, and Coffea. | |
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