Crop Domestication and Agricultural Intensification

Human civilisation has been shaped by the emergence of domesticated crop plants and livestock from their wild relatives. This long-term process involved direct anthropogenic alterations of ecosystems by hunting, foraging, changes in land use, cultural practices, and farming. Rapid advances in in methodological approaches, including high-quality genome assemblies for crop plants and their wild relatives, pan-genomic scans of selection and characterisation of structural variations, demographic modelling, and genome-wide association studies, has provided novel insights into the molecular foundations of domestication traits and the roles played by selection and other evolutionary forces in shaping the genomes of cultivated plants. Despite these advances, significant gaps remain in comprehensively understanding the interplay between genetic changes and intensified agricultural practices over time, especially in relation to novel crops and changing environments.This knowledge is particularly valuable in the context of global climate change-related disasters and population growth affecting food security and sustainability. A deeper understanding of the genetic basis of crop domestication will help address these major challenges, while contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. Moreover, investigating the introduction and integration of underutilised and orphan crops, alongside the identification of associated agronomic practices, is crucial for diversifying cropping systems and securing sustainable agricultural futures. It will also help us to identify the potential of forgotten, underutilised, and orphan crops, revive their use by identifying the associated agronomic practices for introducing these crops into existing cropping systems and mainstream them.This Research Topic aims to bring together studies on the genetics of crop selection, domestication, and the processes of agricultural intensification, with a focus on adaptive evolution and crop–environment interactions. The scope encompasses widely known crop plants, their wild relatives, as well as forgotten, underutilised, orphan crops, within the context of both historical and contemporary agricultural systems.To gather further insights across this spectrum, we welcome contributions addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:• DNA marker-assisted genetic diversity and phylogenetic trend assessment• Climate-adaptive trait-associated DNA markers• Genome reorganisation and crop evolution with inputs from archaeogenetics and archaeobotany• Role of natural and artificial selection in crop evolution• Cultural and agronomic practices shaping crop domestication with archaeobotanical and archaeogenetic inputs• Genomic studies of gene flow between crops and their wild relatives• Role of neofunctionalization and subfunctionalization of genes in crop evolutionOriginal research articles, short communications, and review papers are the preferred manuscript types. Topic editors: Debarati Chakraborty, Anjan Hazra, Somnath Roy, Alice Kujur Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/76964/crop-domestication-and-agricultural-intensification