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Egypt as one of the centers of lettuce domestication: morphological and genetic evidence

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Abstract

Egypt is considered one of the centers of cultivated lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) domestication. However, traditional Egyptian lettuce landraces and their sympatric wild relatives have not been comprehensively described. We assembled a set of 35 lettuce samples from Egypt (landraces of L. sativa Cos and Oilseed types plus L. serriola L.), and compared them with a set of European L. sativa germplasm accessions and an outgroup of wild Lactuca spp. Altogether, 19 morphological and three developmental traits were assessed under greenhouse conditions for the duration of the plants’ life cycle. Species identifications and L. sativa morphotypes were verified. Cluster analysis of 17 qualitative and quantitative morphological traits showed a clear separation of samples into three major clusters, corresponding to clustering based on 689 AFLP markers. The seed weight of Oilseed types was significantly higher than those of other types. All Cos-type samples, either from Egypt or advanced cultivars, remained free of natural powdery mildew infection. The origin and potential contributions of lettuce from Egypt are discussed in relation to the broader history of lettuce cultivation and varietal improvement.

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Acknowledgements

Technical assistance of B. Machalová and M. Klíčová is acknowledged.

Funding

This research has been supported by the Czech Ministry of Education (MSM 6198959215) and the Internal Grant Agency of Palacký University in Olomouc (IGA-PrF-2020-003; IGA-PrF-2021-001; IGA-PrF-2022-002).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Palacký University in Olomouc, Šlechtitelů 27, 783 71, Olomouc-Holice, Czech Republic

    Aleš Lebeda, Eva Křístková & Miloslav Kitner

  2. Department of Horticulture, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 50011, USA

    Mark P. Widrlechner

  3. Agricultural Institute of Slovenia, Hacquetova ulica 17, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Marko Maras

  4. Botany Department, Faculty of Science, Tanta University, Al-Geish St., Tanta, Gharbia, Egypt

    Mohamed A. El-Esawi

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  1. Aleš Lebeda
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  2. Eva Křístková
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  4. Mark P. Widrlechner
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Contributions

A.L.: Supervision, Methodology, Investigation, Data interpretation, Writing, Validation. E.K.: Methodology, Investigation, Data interpretation, Writing. M.K.: Methodology, Investigation, Data interpretation, Writing. M.P.W.: Writing, Validation. M.M.: Methodology, Statistics, Writing. M.A.E.: Plant material, Validation of passport data.

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Correspondence to Aleš Lebeda.

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Lebeda, A., Křístková, E., Kitner, M. et al. Egypt as one of the centers of lettuce domestication: morphological and genetic evidence. Euphytica 218, 10 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10681-021-02960-3

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