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Published online on July 29, 2002, 10.1073/pnas.152275499
PNAS | August 6, 2002 | vol. 99 | no. 16 | 10923-10928


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Ecology / Anthropology
Evidence for the control of phytolith formation in Cucurbita fruits by the hard rind (Hr) genetic locus: Archaeological and ecological implications

Dolores R. Piperno * {dagger}, Irene Holst *, Linda Wessel-Beaver {ddagger}, and Thomas C. Andres §

*Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, P.O. Box 2072, Balboa, Ancon, Republic of Panama; {ddagger}Department of Agronomy and Soils, University of Puerto Rico, P.O. Box 9030, Mayaguez, Puerto Rico 00681-9030; and §The Cucurbit Network, Bronx, NY 10471

Edited by Michael E. Moseley, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, and approved June 6, 2002 (received for review May 8, 2002)

Many angiosperms, both monocotyledons and dicotyledons, heavily impregnate their vegetative and reproductive organs with solid particles of silicon dioxide (SiO2) known as opaline phytoliths. The underlying mechanisms accounting for the formation of phytoliths in plants are poorly understood, however. Using wild and domesticated species in the genus Cucurbita along with their F1 and F2 progeny, we have demonstrated that the production of large diagnostic phytoliths in fruit rinds exhibits a one-to-one correspondence to the lignification of these structures. We propose that phytolith formation in Cucurbita fruits is primarily determined by a dominant genetic locus, called hard rind (Hr), previously shown to code for lignin deposition. If true, this evidence represents a demonstration of genetic control over phytolith production in a dicotyledon and provides considerable support to hypotheses that silica phytoliths constitute another important system of mechanical defense in plants. Our research also identifies Hr as another single locus controlling more than one important phenotypic difference between wild and domesticated plants, and establishes rind tissue cell structure and hardness under the effects of Hr as an important determinant of phytolith morphology. When recovered from pre-Columbian archaeological sites, Cucurbita phytoliths represent genetically controlled fossil markers of exploitation and domestication in this important economic genus.

Abbreviations: PFZ, phytolith formation zone

{dagger} To whom reprint requests should be addressed. E-mail: pipernod{at}stri.org.

This paper was submitted directly (Track II) to the PNAS office.


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