Abstract
Indian dwarf wheat (Triticum aestivum L. ssp. sphaerococcum (Perc.) Mac Key, synonym: T. sphaerococcum Perc.) is endemic to southern Pakistan and northwestern India. It was one of the main winter crops grown by ancient Indian cultures. However, it disappeared from the record during the early twentieth century, especially after the Green Revolution brought modern wheat varieties into India and Pakistan. Whether or not Indian dwarf wheat is presently cultivated has been unclear. Here we report on the rediscovery of the cultivation of this wheat in northern Karnataka and southern Maharashtra in India. Molecular genetic analysis of the chloroplast DNA of the two specimens collected at location 3 revealed that both samples have a unique haplotype that is specific to Indian dwarf wheat. We found this wheat at three locations in 2010, but at only one of the three locations in 2011. Therefore, the future survival of this subspecies is uncertain. Further ethnobotanical research is urgently needed to conserve this unique genetic resource for the future.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Dr. Steve Weber at Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, U.S.A. for helpful comments on earlier version of this manuscript. We wish to express our gratitude to Shri Chanukote Swamiji for his support during the field survey in Karnataka. We would like to express our appreciation to Mr. G. Paramajyoti for his guidance in our field trip. We thank also to Mr. Satish Shivaji Naik at Deccan College, Pune, India for his assistance in preparing the herbarium specimens. This work was supported by the research project titled “Environmental change and the Indus civilization” (henceforth the Indus project, project No. H-03), Research Institute For Humanity and Nature (RIHN), Kyoto, Japan. We are grateful to National bio-resources program (NBRP) KOMUGI, Japan and National Small Grains Facility (USDA-ARS), U.S.A. for providing us with the wheat accessions used in this study. The herbarium specimens of the Indian dwarf wheat were prepared and kept both in Deccan College, Pune, India and Fukui Prefecutural University, Fukui, Japan.
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Mori, N., Ohta, S., Chiba, H. et al. Rediscovery of Indian dwarf wheat (Triticum aestivum L. ssp. sphaerococcum (Perc.) MK.) an ancient crop of the Indian subcontinent. Genet Resour Crop Evol 60, 1771–1775 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-013-9994-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-013-9994-z