Domestication without a genetic bottleneck in Stenocereus (Cactaceae)

Domestication without a genetic bottleneck in Stenocereus (Cactaceae)

The Tehuacán Valley in Mexico provides an excellent setting for studying domestication as artificial selection is currently practised on nearly 120 native plant species with coexisting wild, silvicultural and cultivated populations. Parra et al. study the cactus Stenocereus puinosus and find that despite selection for larger and sweeter fruit, there are high levels of gene flow that have promoted morphological divergence and moderate genetic structure between wild and managed populations, while conserving genetic diversity.