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Awn Reduction and the Domestication of Asian Rice: A Syndrome or Crop Improvement Trait?

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Abstract

Awn Reduction and the Domestication of Asian Rice: A Syndrome or Crop Improvement Trait? Although wild progenitors of Asian cultivated rice have long awns, they are shorter or absent in domesticated landraces and cultivars. Thus, one may wonder when and why such transition from awned to awnless has occurred, i.e., is the reduction of awns a domestication syndrome trait or a trait that emerged during crop improvement? The proponents of an evolutionary model of rice domestication consider the loss/reduction of seed dispersal aids as a key domestication syndrome trait, apart from the fixation of seed retention. We challenge this view by showing that early cultivators had incentives for selecting long awns before and even after the fixation of the non-shattering trait. This is because long awns prevented seed predation by animals and facilitated harvest by means of the basket-beating method, which implies that their presence improved yield and labor efficiency. Our arguments also reveal that awns perhaps have persisted long after domestication and even after the introduction of sickles. Taken together, the reduction of awns may not fit into a domestication syndrome trait, but it can most plausibly be considered as a crop improvement trait.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank two anonymous referees. They also acknowledge the constructive criticisms by Utpal Basu, Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, University of Kalyani. The authors would like to thank Abhra Chakraborty for providing the photographs of the landraces with awns. The usual caveat applies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculté de Droit et d’Economie, Université de La Réunion, Saint Denis, France

    Serge Svizzero

  2. Center for Studies in Ethnobiology, Biodiversity, and Sustainability (CEiBa), Malda, West Bengal, India

    Avik Ray & Debarati Chakraborty

  3. Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, University of Kalyani, Kalyani, India

    Debarati Chakraborty

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  1. Serge Svizzero
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  2. Avik Ray
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Correspondence to Avik Ray.

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Svizzero, S., Ray, A. & Chakraborty, D. Awn Reduction and the Domestication of Asian Rice: A Syndrome or Crop Improvement Trait?. Econ Bot 73, 477–488 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12231-019-09465-0

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