Wheats are important model organisms for testing evolutionary theory (both speciation and adaptation) and bread wheat is a major source of human nutrition (Nevo et al, 2002). Wheat speciation involves a polyploid series (2x, 4x, 6x). The origin of most wheats is wild emmer, Triiicum dicoccoides (genome AABB) whose origin, center of diversity, and domestication sites are located in the Fertile Crescent, specifically in northern Israel (Galilee and Golan Mountains). In 1975, the Institute of Evolutionat the University of Haifa, established a long-term multidisciplinary research program to study wild cereals including wild emmer, T. dicoccoides. The program includes evolutionary ecological-genetics and genomics coupled with the exploration of geneticresources for wheat improvement by genetic mapping and cloning. Both aspects, the theoretical and the applied, have proved to be of great importance for studying evolutionary theory and crop improvement (a list of publications can be found at: http://research.haifa.ac.il/~evolut.) Here, I will review the following perspectives of wild emmer wheat: the adaptive nature of genetic diversity resulting from natural selection; the unique population genetic structure and center of origin and diversity; geneticresources; and theoretical aspects including domestication evolution and applied aspects of wheat improvements both by classical breeding and modern biotechnology. Wild emmer wheat, probably the most important wild plant for human nutrition is a rich evolutionary model for understanding (and partly controlling) polyploid speciation and adaptation, and a mostly untapped, yet promising genetic resource for wheat improvement and increased food production.
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