Playing catch-up, I note from Cacaolab an article in the New York Times, saying that archaeologists reckon that people first used the pulp in cacao pods as the basis for a fermented beverage, only later figuring out that the seeds might be good to eat too. Cacaolab says this makes sense. I’ll take their word for it.
I like the idea of one thing leading to another because it gives weight to my favourite theory on the domestication of maize. All the evidence suggests that the original mutation that turned teosinte into maize happened only once. So how come somebody noticed it? Because people were cultivating teosinte. But why? They weren’t using the seeds, as far as we know. Hugh Iltis advanced the idea that people were growing teosinte as a source of sugar, chewing on the stalks rather like sugarcane. And they were also harvesting corn smut, Ustilago maydis, a fungus that grows on the seeds and that is known locally as huitlacoche (which, by the way, is absolutely delicious). So they had every reason to pay attention to teosinte’s miserable ears of grain, and to notice the changes that created maize.
Speaking of which … geneticists have recreated the rare events that gave rise to wheat, giving us synthetic wheat (incredibly useful for breeding) in the process. They know all about the mutations that make maize. But as far as I know they have not yet made synthetic maize. Why not?
“They know all about the mutations that make maize. But as far as I know they have not yet made synthetic maize. Why not?”
Well, that depends on your maize domestication theory. Mary Eubanks has an alternative theory, which says that maize is a product of hybridization involving not only teosinte but also Tripsacum, not just straightforward selection on teosinte.
And… she actually has the plant that her theory would predict as possible to make. With these hybrids she has produced some maize varieties used in organic agriculture, I believe.
But not everybody believes Dr Eubanks. An authority like Garrison Wilkes says it is plausible, however.
Read more at here.
Absolutely fascinating story. Thank you so much for the link, Jacob. For anyone who follows your link and is confused by landing in the middle of the article, it begins here.
Just to be complete, there is also an experiment by John Doebley which tries to demonstrate the opposite point. He plans to have 25 or 30 cycles of selection on teosinte to end up with a maize-like plant.
So there is something for each taste – and we will have a few decades to indulge without worrying about the truth!
To be continued.
Similar stories in another sense. The discovery of chocolate (by a Maya king, according to legend) was probably also the result of a one-time mutation that created the ‘criollo’ variety of cacao preferred by the Maya, and still responsible for the highest quality chocolate.
Thanks for the comment Ron, but I’d like to know more about this story. Can you either send a link to a good account of the discovery story, or else write it up yourself as a guest post?