International Team of Researchers Sequence Genome of 6,000-Year-Old Barley

An international team of researchers from Germany, Israel, UK, and the US has successfully sequenced the genome of Chalcolithic barley grains for the first time. The 6,000-year-old seeds were the oldest plant genome to be reconstructed to date, retrieved from Yoram Cave in the southern cliff of Masada fortress in the Judean Desert, close to the Dead Sea. This prehistoric barley is very similar to present-day barley.

The analyses show that seeds cultivated 6,000 years ago greatly differ genetically from the wild forms found in the region today, though considerable genetic overlap with present-day domesticated lines from the region were evident. This shows that barley domestication in the Fertile Crescent was already well advanced very early, and that conquerors and immigrants to the region did not bring their own crop seeds, but continued cultivating local crops.

The comparison of the ancient seeds with wild forms from the region and with landraces enabled to geographically suggest the origin of the domestication of barley within the Upper Jordan Valley, a hypothesis that is also supported by two archaeological sites in the surrounding area where the earliest remains of barley cultivation have been found.

For more details, read the news release at the Bar-Ilan University website.