Origin of the cultivated apple in the Tian Shan forests
Origen de la manzana cultivada en los bosques del Tian Shan
- Date
- 1929 (confirmado por genética en 2010-2017) · confidence high
- Place
- Zailiysky Alatau (Tian Shan), Almaty, Kazakhstan
- Credited to
- Nikolai Vavilov (1929); geneticists Velasco, Cornille, Duan and others (2010-2017)
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
The botanist Vavilov identified the wild Malus sieversii forests around Alma-Ata as the origin of the cultivated apple. Genomic analyses confirmed it and showed that the apple spread along the Silk Road and hybridised with the European wild crab apple.
The time of domestication (millennia BC) is not known precisely; the entry records the identification of the centre of origin. Modern apples also carry genes of Malus sylvestris.
What it led to
- the Silk Road as a route for spreading fruit trees
- conservation of Malus sieversii forests as a genetic reserve
- Vavilov's centres-of-origin theory applied to fruit growing