ABSTRACT
Evolutionary biology and agriculture are deeply entwined. From Darwin through today, evolutionary biologists and plant breeders have engaged in mutually beneficial exchanges of ideas and techniques; indeed, many plant breeders have been evolutionary biologists. Focusing on potatoes, tomatoes, coffee, and corn, this chapter examines some of the ways the principles of evolutionary biology have informed agricultural practices. With potatoes and coffee, we discuss how insufficient genetic variation led to disease outbreaks and how evolutionary principles can be used to combat their pests. We explore how artificial selection led to poorer-tasting commercial tomatoes and the efforts taken to improve their taste. One interesting feature of domesticated plants is their higher rate of recombination: this enhanced shuffling of genes appears to be a consequence of domestication selecting for more recombination, allowing for more efficient further selection in return. We conclude with the story of Nikolai Vavilov, his search for the centers of diversity of crop plant species, and his championing of seed banks.
