Center of origin


A centre of origin is a geographical area where a group of organisms, either domesticated or wild, first developed its distinctive properties. They are also considered centers of diversity. Centers of origin were first identified in 1924 by Nikolai Vavilov.

Plants

Locating the origin of crop plants is basic to plant breeding. This allows one to locate wild relatives, related species, and new genes.
Knowledge of the origins of crop plants is important in order to avoid genetic erosion, the loss of germplasm due to the loss of ecotypes and landraces, loss of habitat, and increased urbanization. Germplasm preservation is accomplished through gene banks and preservation of natural habitats.

Vavilov centers

A Vavilov Centre is a region of the world first indicated by Nikolai Vavilov to be an original centre for the domestication of plants. For crop plants, Nikolai Vavilov identified differing numbers of centers: three in 1924, five in 1926, six in 1929, seven in 1931, eight in 1935 and reduced to seven again in 1940.
Vavilov argued that plants were not domesticated somewhere in the world at random, but that there were regions where domestication started. The centre of origin is also considered the center of diversity.
Vavilov centres are regions where a high diversity of crop wild relatives can be found, representing the natural relatives of domesticated crop plants. Later in 1935 Vavilov divided the centers into 12, giving the following list:
  1. Chinese centre
  2. Indian centre
  3. Indo-Malayan centre
  4. Central Asiatic centre
  5. Persian centre
  6. Mediterranean centre
  7. Abyssinian centre
  8. South American centre
  9. Central American centre
  10. Chilean centre
  11. Brazilian-Paraguayan centre
  12. North American centre
World centres of origin of cultivated plants
CentrePlants
1) South Mexican and Central American CentreIncludes southern sections of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and Costa Rica.
2) South American Centre62 plants listed; three subcentres2) Peruvian, Ecuadorean, Bolivian Center:
2A) Chiloe Centre
2B) Brazilian-Paraguayan Center
3) Mediterranean CentreIncludes the borders of the Mediterranean Sea. 84 listed plants
  • Cereals and Legumes: durum wheat, emmer, Polish wheat, spelt, Mediterranean oats, sand oats, canarygrass, grass pea, pea, lupine
  • Forage Plants: Egyptian clover, white clover, crimson clover, serradella
  • Oil and Fibre Plants: flax, rape, black mustard, olive
  • Vegetables: garden beet, cabbage, turnip, lettuce, asparagus, celery, chicory, parsnip, rhubarb,
  • Ethereal Oil and Spice Plants: caraway, anise, thyme, peppermint, sage, hop.
    • 4) Middle EastIncludes interior of Asia Minor, all of Transcaucasia, Iran, and the highlands of Turkmenistan. 83 species
  • Grains and Legumes: einkorn wheat, durum wheat, poulard wheat, common wheat, oriental wheat, Persian wheat, two-row barley, rye, Mediterranean oats, common oats, lentil, lupine
  • Forage Plants: alfalfa, Persian clover, fenugreek, vetch, hairy vetch
  • Fruits: fig, pomegranate, apple, pear, quince, cherry, hawthorn.
    • 5) Abyssinian CentreIncludes Ethiopia, Eritrea, and part of Somalia. 38 species listed; rich in wheat and barley.
  • Grains and Legumes: Abyssinian hard wheat, poulard wheat, emmer, Polish wheat, barley, grain sorghum, pearl millet, African millet, cowpea, flax, teff
  • Miscellaneous: sesame, castor bean, garden cress, coffee, okra, myrrh, indigo, enset.
    • 6) Central Asiatic CentreIncludes Northwest India, Afghanistan, Tadjikistan, Uzbekistan, and western Tian-Shan. 43 plants
  • Grains and Legumes: common wheat, club wheat, shot wheat, peas, lentil, horse bean, chickpea, mung bean, mustard, flax, sesame
  • Fiber Plants: hemp, cotton
  • Vegetables: onion, garlic, spinach, carrot
  • Fruits: pistacio, pear, almond, grape, apple.
    • 7) Indian CentreTwo subcentres7) Indo-Burma:
    Main Centre : Includes Assam, Bangladesh and Burma, but not Northwest India, Punjab, nor Northwest Frontier Provinces, 117 plants
    7A) Siam-Malaya-Java: statt Indo-Malayan Centre:
    Includes Indo-China and the Malay Archipelago, 55 plants
    8) Chinese CentreA total of 136 endemic plants are listed in the largest independent center
  • Cereals and Legumes: e.g. rice broomcorn millet, Italian millet, Japanese barnyard millet, sorghum, buckwheat, hull-less barley, soybean, Adzuki bean, velvet bean
  • Roots, Tubers, and Vegetables: e.g. Chinese yam, radish, Chinese cabbage, onion, cucumber
  • Fruits and Nuts: e.g. pear, Chinese apple, peach, apricot, cherry, walnut, litchi, orange
  • Sugar, Drug, and Fibre Plants: e.g.sugar cane, opium poppy, ginseng camphor, hemp.

    • Importance

    In 2016, researchers linked the origins and primary regions of diversity of food and agricultural crops with their current importance around the world in modern national food supplies and agricultural production. The results indicated that foreign crops were 68.7% of national food supplies as a global mean, and their usage has greatly increased in the last fifty years.