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They're prickly on the outside, sweet on the inside, and beloved for their pink shells and fragrant fruit. They can be found in bubble tea, ice cream, and a cocktail. You can eat them fresh if you peel them.
The earliest records of lychees being grown in China date back to about 2,000 years ago. In the Tang Dynasty, one emperor set up a dedicated horse relay to deliver fresh lychees to the imperial court from harvests far to the south.
Scientists are using genomics to peer deeper into the lychee's history. They've found insights that could help shape the future of the species.
One of the most economically significant fruit crops grown in eastern Asia, especially so to the yearly income of farmers in southern China, is lychee. We were able to trace the origin and domestication history of lychee by analyzing the wild and cultivated varieties. We showed that the extremely early and late-maturing cultivars were derived from domestication events.
The professor in the same college at SCA says that they have identified a deleted stretch of genetic material that can be used to screen for different flowering times in lychee varieties.
Victor Albert, a senior author of the study, says that the history of what humans did with lychee is like a puzzle. The origins of lychee, the idea that there were two separate domestications, and the discovery of a genetic deletion that causes different varieties to fruit and flower at different times are some of the main stories our research tells.
Nature Genetics will publish the study on January 3. The team was led by SCAU and included China, the U.S., Singapore, France and Canada.
Senior authors are from SCAU, the University of Illinois, and the University of Buffalo. The first authors are from SCAU, the Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, and the Nanyang Technological University.
It was domesticated more than once.
Scientists created a high-quality reference genome for a popular lychee called 'Feizixiao', and compared it to other wild and farmed varieties. The cultivars are all related to the same species.
The analysis shows that the lychee tree was domesticated independently in each of the two locations, and that it originated in southwestern China.
In Yunnan, people began to cultivate very early-flowering varieties, and in Hainan, late-blooming varieties that bear fruit later in the year. Interbreeding between the two regions led to the creation of hybrid varieties, like 'Feizixiao'.
The timing of these events is not certain. The study suggests that the evolutionary split between the populations of L. chinensis in Yunnan and Hainan could have taken place around 18,000 years ago. Other solutions are possible, but that is only an estimate. The analysis provides a fascinating look at the evolutionary history of lychees and their link with humans.
When will the tree bloom? A simple genetic test can tell.
The study adds new chapters to the history of the lychee and provides an in-depth look at flowering time, a hugely important trait in agriculture.
Albert, the Empire Innovation Professor of Biological Sciences in the University of Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences, says that lychees came from different places and were domesticated independently. "This is an interesting story, but we also wanted to know what causes these differences: Why do these varieties fruit and flower at different times?"
A simple test for identifying early- and late-blooming lychee plants could be created using a genetic variant that the team identified.
The deletion is near two genes that are associated with flowering and may help to control their activity.
The deletion comes from both parents of the Yunnan cultivars that bloom very early. Hainan varieties that mature late do not have it. The deletion means that the hybrid has only one copy from one parent. It makes sense, as the flowers are not very early.
This is useful for breeders. Albert says that the flowering times of the lychee have been important to extending the season for which the lychee is available in markets.
The next step is the lychee genome.
The team at SCAU initiated the lychee genome study as part of a bigger project that hopes to greatly expand what we know about the DNA of important flowering plants within the same family.
Many economically important plants are in the Sapindaceae family. Only a few of them, including lychee, longan, rambutan, yellowhorn and maple, have their full genomes.
The College of Horticulture at SCAU is working on a large collaborative project of sequencing more species of the Sapindaceae family native to China and of economic importance, such as rambutan, sapindus (soapberries) and balloon vine. The main research interests will be flowering, secondary metabolism and fruit development.
Victor Albert, Two haplotypes from a highly Heterozygous lychee genome suggest independent domestication events for early and late-maturing cultivars. www.nature.com/articles/s41588-021-0
Nature Genetics is a journal.
There is a colorful story about a colorful tropical fruit in the lychee genome.
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