Preceramic adoption of peanut, squash, and cotton in northern Peru.

The early development of agriculture in the New World has been assumed to involve early farming in settlements in the Andes, but the record has been sparse. Peanut (Arachis sp.), squash (Cucurbita moschata), and cotton (Gossypium barbadense) macrofossils were excavated from archaeological sites on the western slopes of the northern Peruvian Andes. Direct radiocarbon dating indicated that these plants grew between 9240 and 5500 (14)C years before the present. These and other plants were recovered from multiple locations in a tropical dry forest valley, including household clusters, permanent architectural structures, garden plots, irrigation canals, hoes, and storage structures. These data provide evidence for early use of peanut and squash in the human diet and of cotton for industrial purposes and indicate that horticultural economies in parts of the Andes took root by about 10,000 years ago.

Evidence for the control of phytolith formation in Cucurbita fruits by the hard rind (Hr) genetic locus: Archaeological and ecological implications.

Many angiosperms, both monocotyledons and dicotyledons, heavily impregnate their vegetative and reproductive organs with solid particles of silicon dioxide (SiO(2)) known as opaline phytoliths. The underlying mechanisms accounting for the formation of phytoliths in plants are poorly understood, however. Using wild and domesticated species in the genus Cucurbita along with their F(1) and F(2) progeny, we have demonstrated that the production of large diagnostic phytoliths in fruit rinds exhibits a one-to-one correspondence to the lignification of these structures. We propose that phytolith formation in Cucurbita fruits is primarily determined by a dominant genetic locus, called hard rind (Hr), previously shown to code for lignin deposition. If true, this evidence represents a demonstration of genetic control over phytolith production in a dicotyledon and provides considerable support to hypotheses that silica phytoliths constitute another important system of mechanical defense in plants. Our research also identifies Hr as another single locus controlling more than one important phenotypic difference between wild and domesticated plants, and establishes rind tissue cell structure and hardness under the effects of Hr as an important determinant of phytolith morphology. When recovered from pre-Columbian archaeological sites, Cucurbita phytoliths represent genetically controlled fossil markers of exploitation and domestication in this important economic genus.

Phylogenetic relationships among domesticated and wild species of Cucurbita (Cucurbitaceae) inferred from a mitochondrial gene: Implications for crop plant evolution and areas of origin.

We have investigated the phylogenetic relationships among six wild and six domesticated taxa of Cucurbita using as a marker an intron region from the mitochondrial nad1 gene. Our study represents one of the first successful uses of a mtDNA gene in resolving inter- and intraspecific taxonomic relationships in Angiosperms and yields several important insights into the origins of domesticated Cucurbita. First, our data suggest at least six independent domestication events from distinct wild ancestors. Second, Cucurbita argyrosperma likely was domesticated from a wild Mexican gourd, Cucurbita sororia, probably in the same region of southwest Mexico that gave rise to maize. Third, the wild ancestor of Cucurbita moschata is still unknown, but mtDNA data combined with other sources of information suggest that it will probably be found in lowland northern South America. Fourth, Cucurbita andreana is supported as the wild progenitor of Cucurbita maxima, but humid lowland regions of Bolivia in addition to warmer temperate zones in South America from where C. andreana was originally described should possibly be considered as an area of origin for C. maxima. Fifth, our data support other molecular results that indicate two separate domestications in the Cucurbita pepo complex. The potential zone of domestication for one of the domesticated subspecies, C. pepo subsp. ovifera, includes eastern North America and should be extended to northeastern Mexico. The wild ancestor of the other domesticated subspecies, C. pepo subsp. pepo, is undiscovered but is closely related to C. pepo subsp. fraterna and possibly will be found in southern Mexico.