I grew up in Washington state, and many of my relatives worked the apple orchards in season — they were good, hardworking fruit pickers. But I hadn’t even thought about where apples came from. I was pretty sure it wouldn’t have been the Yakima valley, and of course I knew of the legend of Johnny Appleseed, but wouldn’t have been able to even guess what their origin was.
It turns out they’re from Kazakhstan.
What I thought was most interesting in the video is that it mentions Nikolai Vavilov, and his famous hypothesis — so famous that we take it for granted in any discussion of human origins.
The origin of any cultivated plant can be found where its wild relatives grow with the greatest diversity.
Awesome! I’m going to have expand my discussion of extreme heterozygosity and centers of origin in my Spring semester genetics class (but not now, I have to focus on cell bio for next week). I read this most excellent review, Human-driven evolution of cultivated plants and the origin of early civilizations: The concept of Neolithic revolution in the works of Nikolai Vavilov and found it enlightening.
The concept of centers of origin of cultivated plants (crop biodiversity hotspots) developed by Nikolai Vavilov (1887–1943) is essential for understanding the origin and evolution of human civilization. Vavilov formulated the principles of the Neolithic agricultural revolution and substantiated the basic patterns for the emergence of agricultural civilizations. He established that the center of speciation of the plants that have a potential for cultivation determines the origin of primary civilization. Humans actively performed the selection of plants with valuable properties, which led to the formation of new cultivated species and varieties, while the starting point for such unconsciously human-directed evolution was the presence of potentially useful traits due to the increased genetic diversity in the center of origin. The spreading of agriculturally important cultivars from the center of their origin led to the propagation of beneficial farming technologies over large areas. The establishment of human civilization resulted from the dynamic quasi-symbiotic relationship between humans and domesticated plants and animals, which human-driven evolution became an essential factor for the transformation and dynamics of human societies.
Here’s all the human history you need. (I exaggerate slightly.)
Fig. 5 summarizes the proposed views on the development of agricultural civilizations and phytospreading during the Holocene. The phytospreading process became to a major extent human-driven in the Holocene, which resulted in intensive biomass formation related to the production of crops. Centers of origin of cultivated plants determined the rise of early civilizations, which in turn facilitated the spreading of wild, cultivated, and weed species to higher latitudes. The process of phytospreading in the Holocene was described by Vavilov for the origin and distribution of cultivated plants. He identified the centers of origin of cultivated plants as the hotspots of genetic diversity for the plants potentially having agricultural importance. In these spots, the series of parallel variability (described as Vavilov’s law of homologous series) were very intense.
Fig. 5. Schematic illustration of the development of agricultural practices, spreading of cultivated plants, and social evolution of human civilization.
The law of homologous series is a very evo-devo concept. It’s the idea that similar variations can be found in members of the same genus, the same family, that is, that there seems to be something in the ancestral form that recurs spontaneously in later descendant forms, that the feature is an intrinsic property that can pop up in multiple branches of a lineage. These are brilliant observations rooted in Vavilov’s extensive study of native populations. Yes, he visited Kazakhstan and studied the apples there.
It’s especially impressive that he was doing this work that merged the disciplines of evolutionary biology and genetics in the 1920s.
You may have heard Vavilov’s name in another context: he was hated by the anti-science ideologue Trofim Lysenko, who eventually had him arrested and condemned to death in 1940. Vavilov died in prison in 1943, all because he recognized the scientific validity of Mendelian genetics, and opposed the nonsensical delusions and wishful thinking of Lysenko (delusions that led to the death of millions by famine). I can’t help but notice the similarities in the conflict between American science and the lies of MAHA and our modern Lysenko, RFK jr.
Vavilov’s mugshot
Thank goodness no scientists are being harassed in show trials and threatened with prison here! How many great scientists are going to wither on the vine thanks to the current radical politicization of science in this country?
This must be sarcasm.
Anthony Fauci was one of the heroes of the Covid-19 virus pandemic.
We just had a show trial for him in congress, chaired by a GOP MD, Rand Paul.
He has been referred to the misnamed DofJ for further torture.
Fauci’s crime was being right, hard working, and effective in fighting the pandemic.
The only reason the terrorists and quacks of the GOP aren’t referring more scientists and MDs to the fake DofJ is that they don’t know any more scientists by name or what they did.
These people are all pretty dumb.
They may not all be great scientists, whatever that means, but at least tens of thousands of US scientists will lose their jobs, do nothing, and change their careers because of the huge cuts in funding.
The other victim will be the USA and the American people.
Science is the driver of our civilization and the basis of the US economy.
The leading countries in the world all have high spending on Research and Development.
For more on the “legend” of Johnny Appleseed, aka John Chapman (1774 — 1845), see the first part of Michael Pollan’s The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World (2001). It’s an enjoyable read, although I can’t swear to the historical accuracy. Based on Pollan’s description, you might say Chapman was a model for an American entrepreneur…as American as apple pie.
Per Pollan, the reason for growing apples was to make cider, specifically hard cider because beer was rare in those days. Chapman collected seeds from the cider houses in Pennsylvania then canoed down the Ohio River then up the side stream to find places to plant the sees. He would come back later to collect saplings and sell them to the settlers.
In the vein of Vavilov’s ideas, I have read that wheat originated from a wild species of Einkorn that came from the Karaca Dağ mountain in eastern Turkey, and Emmer wheat from the Fertile Crescent.
Here is the quack, RFK jr.’s latest delusion.
This is false.
This doesn’t even rise to the level of a lie.
RFK jr. is a delusional loon.
I know this because I lived through the last polio pandemic and saw the damage up close.
It was just luck that I didn’t get it myself.
In the third grade, one day I went to school.
The playground was in chaos. One of our classmates had died and it had never occurred to us that young kids could die. That only happened to old people, pets, and on TV.
The word went around. Polio.
We all knew what polio was.
A lot of adults, including one of our teachers, limped in various idiosyncratic ways.
And we all knew about the iron lungs. Thousands of people were trapped in iron lungs for life from polio. It was something we all dreaded.
I’ve since seen an older adult die from post-polio syndrome.
Mitch McConnell, the notorious anti-human senator from Kentucky has multiple health problems, one of which is left over from the polio he got as a child.
And, there was a happy ending.
I remember when the polio vaccine was developed and everyone rushed to get it.
I got 4 doses myself .
raven @ #1 — Yes, I’m confident that’s sarcasm.
raven @ #2 — It’s difficult to imagine how a person even at Junior’s age…a mere child compared to some (me)…could have the idea in his head that the vaccine killed more than polio. The message was very strong when I was a child in the early 50s that polio was a scary and devastating disease. If it didn’t kill you, it could leave you crippled or maimed for life. I was in 1st grade and my classroom was just across a walkway from an annex classroom where they gave the shots. Lots of wailing. But we did it and more of us are here to testify to it.
How the Silk Road Created the Modern Apple
Almost all of the new apple varieties being introduced are bred from Honeycrisp, which was bred at the University of Minnesota. Which should give Minnesota special status in apple civilization.
@2 robro
Bread wheat is the result of a chance hybridization, and to understand it you need to introduce the concept of polyploidy.
Evolution and origin of bread wheat
Humans actively performed the selection of plants with valuable properties, which led to the formation of new cultivated species and varieties…
Which makes it sound like a deliberate program of research and development.
More likely, the plants most valued (for taste, crop yield, etc) had their seeds deposited most often in the trash heaps and pooping places, and were gleaned more in the following harvest seasons – a Darwinian virtuous-cycle process necessary to make deliberate agriculture possible as (locally) expanding populations forced its adoption (farming is much more work than gathering). Tangentially, I suspect most of these trends were observed and applied by women.
… he was hated by the anti-science ideologue Trofim Lysenko, who eventually had him arrested and condemned to death in 1940.
I haven’t heard of any meetings between RFKJr & Putin, but if they happen(ed), surely the latter would inform the former of how the glorious Russian past could guide the future they both want for the USA.
I have heard that there is more human genetic diversity in Africa alone than in all the rest of the world, which supports that we originated in Africa. Not that there is any question about that.
raven @3
I’m guessing RFK Jr is fear-mongering about SV40, which hasn’t seemed to have become an actual issue and is irrelevant to today’s vaccines:
https://pauloffit.substack.com/p/robert-f-kennedy-jr-should-stop-talking
Someone likewise could take a snapshot like this out of context and do even more fear-mongering:
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/06/28/534403083/mutant-strains-of-polio-vaccine-now-cause-more-paralysis-than-wild-polio
There used to be lots of kinds of apples in and around Silicon Valley. Alas a lot of them got paved over. Humans ruin everything.
Reading the review as a non-expert, I’m curious about the “originates as weeds in the mountain valleys, is then bred into agricultural plant as it moves to the river valleys.” Is the idea that the mountain valleys are good sources of isolated populations of plants so that different mountain valleys will differ greatly in plant characteristics and have a better chance of making something desirable to humans to start breeding with? I gather this result was observational for Vavilov but is it correct that the genetic variability of isolated populations is the cause?
@11 IBM in San Jose had a small apple orchard along Cottle Rd on the plant campus because it allowed some sort of farm tax deduction.
@9. Daryl Lafferty : “I have heard that there is more human genetic diversity in Africa alone than in all the rest of the world, which supports that we originated in Africa. Not that there is any question about that.”
Correct. Via Phys dot org (may annoyingly require you to watch ashort ad before seeing.) have added the bold emphasis :
Source : https://phys.org/news/2026-05-africa-world-greatest-genetic-diversity.html
Plus :
Source : https://biologyinsights.com/african-genetics-the-foundation-of-all-human-diversity/
Again emphasis added by me.
In addition to :
Source : https://www.theglobalwow.com/africa-genetic-diversity/
That also notes furtehr down : “The most striking implication: two San people from the same village can be more genetically different from each other than a European person is from an East Asian person.”
Which is really rather absolutley staggering.
But willfully ignorant, toxic, racist scumbags will still pretend “African”genes are one thing and all inferrior to everyone elses becuase, well see a=djectives in accurate description of them starting with second word of this sentence.
@14 StevoR
A solid win for Africans. Don’t let the police state put your DNA in their mass surveillance databases. They will use it against you.
beholder, more of your false insinuations and slanted propaganda.
How so?
Heh.
The phrase “police state” is doing all the ‘argumentative’ work; your ‘argument’ is not about DNA; it is about generic suspicion of state power.
Seriously, jokes aside, you might as well have written
“They will use your fingerprints against you.” or
“They will use your face against you.” or
“They will use your phone metadata against you.”
No less implicature of possible harm thereby.
@15. Trump its troll beholder : No a solid loss as the linked article says.
Because Science gives us the knowledge that can then be used to help eg with genetic diseases and issues and forewarn people of such, etc…
Obvs!
Also fucking paranoid much?
Oh and, of course, the USoA was NOT a police state with eg ICE thugs recruited from the far reichwing until they got the POTUS you helped install and worked for.