Tracing the domestication history of mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana L.) using morphological and genetic approaches

Rainforests in Southeast Asia harbour a great diversity of edible fruits. One of the most emblematic is mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana L. var. mangostana; Clusiaceae), popularly known as the queen of fruits for its exquisite sweet-sour taste and aesthetic appearance. Previous cytological and phylogenetics studies reported contrasting results on the biological origin of the cultivated mangosteen. The more recent findings suggested the wild populations of G. mangostana var. malaccensis as the most probable sole progenitor of the cultivated mangosteen but the overview of its domestication history is far from complete. Against the backdrop of the contradictory theories of its biological origin, the current study set to trace back the domestication history of cultivated mangosteen. Our textual review revealed the earliest written records available indicated that fruits of mangosteen have been sold in marketplaces in the major seaports in the Malay Archipelago for at least 600 years. To elucidate the phenotypic affinities among the cultivated mangosteen and wild relatives, we used morphology as a proxy. In the morphometric analyses, we included 124 specimens consisting of cultivated and wild mangosteens. A total of 38 characters are included in this study. We used Principal Coordinates Analysis (PCoA) and Ascendent Hierarchical Classification (AHC) to evaluate the morphological characters used in species delimitation. Our findings showed that wild mangosteen species can be clearly delineated from cultivated mangosteen using morphological characters. However, we could not find character or combination of characters with statistical support that delimitate taxonomic varieties in G. mangostana. We employed cpDNA SNPs as the genetic markers to examine phylogeny and to infer haplotypes. We selected 192 individuals for genomic library construction. Raw reads were generated applying high-throughput shotgun sequencing. We plotted cladogram and haplotype network diagram to illustrate the genealogy of cultivated and wild mangosteen. The haplotype network consists of populations distributed in East and West Coasts of Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, Sarawak, Sabah and Africa. This network enables us to interpret the effects of seed dispersals on geneflows in the cultivated and wild populations, a congregate haplotype consists of cultivated mangosteen from a few regions exemplified that cultivated mangosteen is assumably disseminated by cultivators over long time. Among wild populations of var. borneensis and var. malaccensis, the geneflow is relatively localised. The localised geneflow is most probably the consequences of dispersals by primates. Considering the findings from morphometric and genetic analyses, we conclude that a distinction between the wild and cultivated compartments of mangosteen is not attainable. Regarding the domestication history, our findings demonstrated that the cultivated var. mangostana of Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore arose from the wild populations of var. malaccensis. We hope this study would spur interest among researchers across the Southeast Asian countries to further clarify the taxonomy, phylogeny and genetic diversities of wild Garcinia congeners, as well as other poorly understood cultivated trees at regional scope.

Text 122444.pdf Download (3MB) Official URL or Download Paper: https://ethesis.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/18574

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