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Title: Recovering data from dead disks: tracking domestication syndrome evolution in sunflowers using ancient DNA
Speaker: Benjamin Blackman, Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, UC Berkeley
Abstract: Native American farmers living ~4000-5000 years ago transformed the common sunflower from a highly branched wild plant with small disks and small seeds into a staple oilseed crop that sports a single large head with large seeds on an unbranched stalk. We have assembled a time series of archaeological samples that spans the majority of the domestication period, and my talk will discuss how we are using endogenous DNA sequences retrieved from these samples to reveal how human cultivation altered sunflower genetic diversity through time.