North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[david liezen <chandos49@hotmail.com>]

I've read so many books about apples this past year I don't remember which 
one this bit of information comes from, (a li'l voice in back of my head 
suggests "The Botany of Desire" by Michael Pollan). 
In seeking out the city in Kazakhstan and Phil Forsline in NY, the author 
quotes (Forsline?) as saying the entire domestic apple population (# of 
cultivars) represents no more than 15 % of the apple gene pool. Hence the 
importance of conserving and utilizing the wild/feral apples of Kazakhstan.
 
Dave Liezen
 
> Date: Tue, 8 Feb 2011 05:29:24 -0800
> From: mijwiz@yahoo.com
> To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: Re: [NAFEX] The apple forests of Almaty
> 
> The point is not how wonderfully diverse those two individual ancestral 
> trees must have been. The point is that all our modern apple cultivars are 
> descended from a very limited genetic background, that seriously LACKED 
> diversity, so much so that it can be thought of as only two individuals. 
> There's a huge amount of diversity still untapped in Kazakhstan, much more 
> diversity than could fit into two theoretical trees.
> 
> It's almost as if some ancient plant explorer, a NAFEXer ancestor no doubt, 
> long ago brought exactly one apple from Kazakhstan to Western Europe and 
> planted the seeds, and all modern varieties are descended from those few 
> seeds. Almost all of the diversity was left behind in Kazakhstan.
> 
> Melissa
> 
> --- On Mon, 2/7/11, nottke1 <nottke1@earthlink.net> wrote:
> 
> > From: nottke1 <nottke1@earthlink.net>
> > Subject: Re: [NAFEX] The apple forests of Almaty
> > To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
> > Date: Monday, February 7, 2011, 7:46 PM
> > Ahhh -  IF ONLY we had those
> > original two trees!!
> > 
> > But they exist only in a computer model.
> > And my experience with tracing back lineages, assuming
> > sexual crossing of genetic material, always leads to two
> > original specimens of whatever species is being studied.
> > 
> > Jim
> > -----Original Message-----
> > >From: david liezen <chandos49@hotmail.com>
> > >Sent: Feb 7, 2011 6:48 PM
> > >To: Nat'l Ass'n of Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
> > >Subject: Re: [NAFEX] The apple forests of Almaty
> > >
> > >
> > >...loaded with heterozygosity! (if there be such a
> > term)
> > > 
> > >Dave
> > > 
> > >> From: rewagner@centurytel.net
> > >> To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
> > >> Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2011 12:11:38 -0600
> > >> Subject: Re: [NAFEX] The apple forests of Almaty
> > >> 
> > >> Why should it be surprising? All the human
> > genetics are from just two 
> > >> people.
> > >> 
> > >> -----Original Message----- 
> > >> From: mIEKAL aND
> > >> Sent: Monday, February 07, 2011 8:24 AM
> > >> To: North American Fruit Explorers
> > >> Subject: Re: [NAFEX] The apple forests of Almaty
> > >> 
> > >> How is it possible that most of apple genetics are
> > from two trees?
> > >> 
> > >> "And here is the most amazing thing yet: These
> > apple trees are the
> > >> source of all apples in the world! The results of
> > a genetic
> > >> sequencing of the trees by researchers* show that
> > the apple forests of
> > >> Kazakhstan are without a doubt the birthplace of
> > the apple. In fact,
> > >> at this point, it looks like 90% of the world's
> > apples are descendants
> > >> of just two trees."
> > >> 
> > >> ~mIEKAL
> > >> 
> > >> On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 8:12 AM, Douglas Woodard
> > <dwoodard@becon.org>
> > wrote:
> > >> > See
> > >> > <http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/3125/>
> > 
> 
> 
> 
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