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Cacao is indigenous to the Amazon basin, but is generally believed to have been domesticated in Mesoamerica for the production of chocolate beverage. However, cacao’s distribution of genetic diversity in South America is also likely to reflect pre-Columbian human influences that were superimposed on natural processes of genetic differentiation. This paper argues that cacao was already widely distributed in the Western Amazon before the onset of glaciation. During glaciation (22,000–13,000 BP), cacao populations were restricted to several refugia where they probably underwent genetic differentiation, resulting in a number of (semi-)wild clusters. As of the Holocene, humans started contributing to shaping a number of other clusters through processes of dispersal and management

Author: Thomas, E.; van Zonneveld, M.; Loo, J.; Hodgkin, T.; Galluzzi, G.; van Etten, J.

Journal or Series: PLoS ONE
No. Vol.7(10)
Publication Year: 2012
Pages: e47676
Format: PDF
Language: EN

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