Genetic evidence for a western Chinese origin of broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum).

Broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum) is a key domesticated cereal that has been associated with the north China centre of agricultural origins. Early archaeobotanical evidence for this crop has generated two major debates. First, its contested presence in pre-7000 cal. BP sites in eastern Europe has admitted the possibility of a western origin. Second, its occurrence in the 7th and 8th millennia cal. BP in diverse regions of northern China is consistent with several possible origin foci, associated with different Neolithic cultures. We used microsatellite and granule-bound starch synthase I (GBSSI) genotype data from 341 landrace samples across Eurasia, including 195 newly genotyped samples from China, to address these questions. A spatially explicit discriminative modelling approach favours an eastern Eurasian origin for the expansion of broomcorn millet. This is consistent with recent archaeobotanical and chronological re-evaluations, and stable isotopic data. The same approach, together with the distribution of GBSSI alleles, is also suggestive that the origin of broomcorn millet expansion was in western China. This second unexpected finding stimulates new questions regarding the ecology of wild millet and vegetation dynamics in China prior to the mid-Holocene domestication of millet. The chronological relationship between population expansion and domestication is unclear, but our analyses are consistent with the western Loess Plateau being at least one region of primary domestication of broomcorn millet. Patterns of genetic variation indicate that this region was the source of populations to the west in Eurasia, which broomcorn probably reached via the Inner Asia Mountain Corridor from the 3rd millennium BC. A secondary westward expansion along the steppe may have taken place from the 2nd millennium BC.European Research Council Advanced Investigator award (GA249642, ‘Food Globalization in Prehistory) Marie Curie Initial Training Network (BEAN—Bridging the European and Anatolian Neolithic, GA no. 289966) Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship (Grant: 100719/Z/12/Z). Gerka-Henkel Stiftung (AZ 05/ZA/12), and NSFC (41672171) National Natural Science Foundation of China (31271791) Shanxi Scholarship Council of China (2016-066) China Agriculture Research System (CARS-06-13.5-A16

GeoOrigins: A new method and R package for trait mapping and geographic provenancing of specimens without categorical constraints

Biologists often seek to geographically provenance organisms using their traits. This is typically achieved by defining spatial groups using distinct patterns of trait variation. Here, we present a new spatial provenancing and trait boundary identification methodology, based on correlations between geographic and trait distances that require no a priori group assumptions. We apply this to three datasets where spatial provenance is sought: morphological rat and vole dentition data (human commensal translocation datasets); and birdsong data (cultural transmission dataset). We also present the results of cross‐validation testing. Spatial provenancing is possible with differing degrees of accuracy for each dataset, with birdsong providing the most accurate geographic origin (identifying an average spatial region of 0.22 km2 as the area of origin with 99.9% confidence). Our method has a wide range of potential applications to diverse data types—including phenotypic, genetic and cultural—to identify trait boundaries and spatially provenance the origin of unknown or translocated specimens where trait differences are geographically structured and correlated with spatial separation

Model-based approaches to investigating spread and productivity of Neolithic domesticates

The domestication of plants and animals during the Neolithic transition marks one of the most important changes in human ecology in the last 300,000 years. Whilst there is a considerable literature on the archaeology of domestic plants and animals, analyses tend to be descriptive and formal model-based inference on the processes of spread and the economic value of those domesticates are less common. In this research, I developed a model-based approach to inferring the location of origin of a population, based upon the expected monotonic decrease in genetic diversity with distance from origin location, and applied this method to data from broomcorn millet across Eurasia, African pearl millet, taro in Africa, the Pacific rat and three endemic species from the island of Sulawesi. I also developed two approaches to analysing age-at-death data from caprines. The first uses the Dirichlet distribution to infer caprine herd sustainability parameters. The second is a full Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo method for inferring herd sustainability and economic productivity of caprine herds. Under the assumptions of the latter model, I infer a general improvement in the economic productivity of caprine herd slaughter management strategies throughout the Neolithic and into the Middle Age

Zawartość fosforu i potasu w mieszankach grochu siewnego z pszenżytem jarym uprawianych na zieloną masę

Background. The cultivation of mixtures of legume and cereal can bring many benefits to agriculture, among others it can provide good quality roughage for direct feeding in the form of green fodder. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of the share of components in the mixture of field pea with spring triticale and the harvest date on the content of phosphorus and potassium in green matter. Material and methods. The field experiment was conducted in 2016–2018 and two factors were studied: I – the proportion of components in the mixture: field pea – clean sowing, spring triticale – clean sowing, field pea 75% + spring triticale 25%, field pea 50% + spring triticale 50%, field pea 25% + spring triticale 75%; II – harvesting date: flowering stage of field pea, flat green pod stage of field pea. Results. The highest content of phosphorus and potassium was found in field pea, while among the mixtures, in the one with 75% of field pea and 25% of spring triticale. A higher content of the mineral elements in question was found in mixtures harvested at the field pea flowering stage compared with mixtures harvested at the stage of the flat green pod of field pea. Conclusion. The most favourable concentration of phosphorus and potassium in green matter is provided by a mixture with 75% of field pea and 25% of spring triticale harvested at flowering stage of field pea.Uprawa mieszanek bobowato-zbożowych może przynieść wiele korzyści rolnictwu, między innymi mogą one stanowić dobrej jakości paszę objętościową do bezpośredniego skarmienia w postaci zielonki. Celem badań była ocena wypływu udziału komponentów w mieszance grochu siewnego z pszenżytem jarym oraz terminu zbioru na zawartość fosforu i potasu w zielonej masie. Doświadczenie polowe przeprowadzono w latach 2016–2018. Badano dwa czynniki: I – udział komponentów w mieszance: groch siewny – siew czysty, pszenżyto jare – siew czysty, groch siewny 75% + pszenżyto jare 25%, groch siewny 50% + pszenżyto jare 50%, groch siewny 25% + pszenżyto jare 75%; II – termin zbioru: faza kwitnienia grochu siewnego, faza płaskiego zielonego strąka grochu siewnego. Najwyższą zawartość fosforu i potasu ujawniono w grochu siewnym, zaś spośród mieszanek – w mieszance o 75% udziale grochu siewnego i 25% udziale pszenżyta jarego. Wyższą zawartość omawianych składników mineralnych wykazywały mieszanki zebrane w fazie kwitnienia grochu siewnego w porównaniu z mieszankami zebranymi w fazie płaskiego zielonego strąka grochu siewnego. Najkorzystniejszą koncentrację fosforu i potasu w zielonej masie zapewnia mieszanka z 75% udziałem grochu siewnego i 25% udziałem pszenżyta jarego, zebrana w fazie kwitnienia grochu siewnego

The Procedure for Evaluating the Adsorption Energy Distribution from an Analysis of Thermodesorption Spectra Based on the Statistical Rate Theory

We have recently proposed a new method for evaluating the adsorption energy distribution function χ(ε) from the numerical analysis of thermodesorption spectra. This method is based on an application of the Statistical Rate Theory developed by Ward et al . (1982). In this paper, we present some simplifications of this method thereby allowing its ready application. Illustrative calculations for the nitrogen thermodesorption spectra from the surface of molecular sieve carbon fibres (MSCF) are presented

Genetic evidence for a western Chinese origin of broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum).

Broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum) is a key domesticated cereal that has been associated with the north China centre of agricultural origins. Early archaeobotanical evidence for this crop has generated two major debates. First, its contested presence in pre-7000 cal. BP sites in eastern Europe has admitted the possibility of a western origin. Second, its occurrence in the 7th and 8th millennia cal. BP in diverse regions of northern China is consistent with several possible origin foci, associated with different Neolithic cultures. We used microsatellite and granule-bound starch synthase I (GBSSI) genotype data from 341 landrace samples across Eurasia, including 195 newly genotyped samples from China, to address these questions. A spatially explicit discriminative modelling approach favours an eastern Eurasian origin for the expansion of broomcorn millet. This is consistent with recent archaeobotanical and chronological re-evaluations, and stable isotopic data. The same approach, together with the distribution of GBSSI alleles, is also suggestive that the origin of broomcorn millet expansion was in western China. This second unexpected finding stimulates new questions regarding the ecology of wild millet and vegetation dynamics in China prior to the mid-Holocene domestication of millet. The chronological relationship between population expansion and domestication is unclear, but our analyses are consistent with the western Loess Plateau being at least one region of primary domestication of broomcorn millet. Patterns of genetic variation indicate that this region was the source of populations to the west in Eurasia, which broomcorn probably reached via the Inner Asia Mountain Corridor from the 3rd millennium BC. A secondary westward expansion along the steppe may have taken place from the 2nd millennium BC.European Research Council Advanced Investigator award (GA249642, ‘Food Globalization in Prehistory) Marie Curie Initial Training Network (BEAN—Bridging the European and Anatolian Neolithic, GA no. 289966) Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship (Grant: 100719/Z/12/Z). Gerka-Henkel Stiftung (AZ 05/ZA/12), and NSFC (41672171) National Natural Science Foundation of China (31271791) Shanxi Scholarship Council of China (2016-066) China Agriculture Research System (CARS-06-13.5-A16