Center of origin

Region where the wild ancestor of a culture is distributed in the native state. In designing N.I. Vavilov (1887-1943) the center of origin of a culture is the region where the wild ancestor exhibited the greatest genetic diversity for a select number of Features, decreasing the variability as we moved to the periphery of the distribution. Current knowledge rarely validates the proposition that the center of a culture of origin coincides with the region in which this seems to have larger genetic diversity, possibly because their relationship was stated wrongly.

Reference and external links

Glossary of Genetic Resources. Embrapa Genetic Resources. Available at: <http://www.cenargen.embrapa.br/recgen/glossario/glossario.html>. Accessed: February 2011.