Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

A 3500-year-old leaf from a Pharaonic tomb reveals that New Kingdom Egyptians were cultivating domesticated watermelon

View ORCID ProfileSusanne S. Renner, View ORCID ProfileOscar A. Pérez-Escobar, Martina V. Silber, Mark Nesbitt, Michaela Preick, Michael Hofreiter, Guillaume Chomicki
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/642785
Susanne S. Renner
1Department of Biology, Institute for Systematic Botany and Mycology, University of Munich (LMU), Menzinger Str. 67, 80638 Munich, Germany
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Susanne S. Renner
  • For correspondence: renner@lmu.de guillaume.chomicki@gmail.com
Oscar A. Pérez-Escobar
2Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, TW9 3AE, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Oscar A. Pérez-Escobar
Martina V. Silber
1Department of Biology, Institute for Systematic Botany and Mycology, University of Munich (LMU), Menzinger Str. 67, 80638 Munich, Germany
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Mark Nesbitt
2Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, TW9 3AE, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Michaela Preick
3Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Institute for Biochemistry and Biology, University of Potsdam, 14476 Potsdam, Germany
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Michael Hofreiter
3Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Institute for Biochemistry and Biology, University of Potsdam, 14476 Potsdam, Germany
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Guillaume Chomicki
4Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3RB, UK
5The Queen’s College, High Street, Oxford OX1 4AW, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: renner@lmu.de guillaume.chomicki@gmail.com
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Supplementary material
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

Domestication of the watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) has alternatively been placed in South Africa, the Nile valley, or more recently West Africa, with the oldest archeological evidence coming from Libya and Egypt. The geographic origin and domestication of watermelons has therefore remained unclear. Using extensive nuclear and plastid genomic data from a 3,560-year-old Citrullus leaf from a mummy’s sarcophagus and skimmed genomes for representatives of the seven extant species of Citrullus, we show that modern cultivars and the ancient plant uniquely share mutations in a lycopene metabolism gene (LYCB) affecting pulp color and a stop codon in a transcription factor regulating bitter cucurbitacin compounds. This implies that the plant we sequenced had red-fleshed and sweet fruits and that New Kingdom Egyptians were cultivating domesticated watermelons. The genomic data also identify extant Sudanese watermelons with white, sweet pulp as the closest relatives of domesticated watermelons.

Significance statement With some 197.8 million tons in 2017, watermelon, Citrullus lanatus, is among the World’s most important crops, yet its area of origin and domestication have remained unclear, with competing hypotheses favoring South Africa, West Africa, Central Africa, or the Nile valley. We generated extensive nuclear and plastid genomic data from a 3500-year-old leaf from a Pharaonic sarcophagus and performed genome skimming for representatives of all other Citrullus species to compare key genes involved in fruit bitterness and color. White-fleshed, non-bitter melons from southern Sudan are the closest relatives of domesticated watermelon, and the ancient genome shares unique alleles with a red-fleshed, non-bitter domesticated form (but no wild forms), implying that 18th Dynasty Egyptians were cultivating domesticated watermelon by 3500 years ago.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted May 20, 2019.
Download PDF

Supplementary Material

Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
A 3500-year-old leaf from a Pharaonic tomb reveals that New Kingdom Egyptians were cultivating domesticated watermelon
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
A 3500-year-old leaf from a Pharaonic tomb reveals that New Kingdom Egyptians were cultivating domesticated watermelon
Susanne S. Renner, Oscar A. Pérez-Escobar, Martina V. Silber, Mark Nesbitt, Michaela Preick, Michael Hofreiter, Guillaume Chomicki
bioRxiv 642785; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/642785
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo LinkedIn logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
A 3500-year-old leaf from a Pharaonic tomb reveals that New Kingdom Egyptians were cultivating domesticated watermelon
Susanne S. Renner, Oscar A. Pérez-Escobar, Martina V. Silber, Mark Nesbitt, Michaela Preick, Michael Hofreiter, Guillaume Chomicki
bioRxiv 642785; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/642785

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Evolutionary Biology
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (3691)
  • Biochemistry (7800)
  • Bioengineering (5678)
  • Bioinformatics (21295)
  • Biophysics (10582)
  • Cancer Biology (8179)
  • Cell Biology (11946)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (6764)
  • Ecology (10401)
  • Epidemiology (2065)
  • Evolutionary Biology (13874)
  • Genetics (9709)
  • Genomics (13074)
  • Immunology (8150)
  • Microbiology (20020)
  • Molecular Biology (7859)
  • Neuroscience (43070)
  • Paleontology (321)
  • Pathology (1279)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (2260)
  • Physiology (3353)
  • Plant Biology (7232)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1313)
  • Synthetic Biology (2008)
  • Systems Biology (5539)
  • Zoology (1128)