Domesticación en el Continente Americano

Molecular analyses are providing new opportunities to decipher the origin, domestication and dispersal of native Amazonian crops in an expanding archaeological context. Solid molecular data are available for manioc (Manihot esculenta), cacao (Theobroma cacao), pineapple (Ananas comosus), peach palm (Bactris gasipaes) and guaran (Paullinia cupana), while hot peppers (Capsicum spp.), inga (Inga edulis), Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa) and cupuassu (Theobroma grandiflorum) are being studied. Emergent patterns include the relationships among domestication, antiquity (terminal Pleistocene to early Holocene), origin in the periphery and ample pre-Columbian dispersal for manioc, pineapple and peach palm; the latter shows clear phylogeographic structure while manioc does not. Cacao represents the special case of an Amazonian species traditionally thought to have been domesticated in Mesoamerica, but molecular data suggests that it may also have incipiently domesticated populations in Amazonia. Another pattern includes the relationships among species with incipiently domesticated populations or very recently domesticated populations, rapid pre-or post-conquest dispersal and lack of phylogeographic population structure, e.g., Brazil nut, cupuassu and guaran. These patterns contrast the peripheral origin of most species with domesticated populations with the subsequent concentration of their genetic resources in the center of the basin, along the major white water rivers where high pre-conquest population densities developed. Additional molecular genetic analyses on these and other species will allow better examination of these processes and will enable us to relate them to other historical ecological patterns in Amazonia.