Browsing by Author "Patricia Lebrun"

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    Coconut (Cocos nucifera L.) DNA studies support the hypothesis of an ancient Austronesian migration from Southeast Asia to America
    (2009) Luc Baudouin; Patricia Lebrun
    The centre of origin of coconut extends from Southwest Asia to Melanesia. Nevertheless, its pre-Columbian existence on the Pacific coast of America is attested. This raises questions about how, when and from where coconut reached America. Our molecular marker study relates the pre-Columbian coconuts to coconuts from the Philippines rather than to those of any other Pacific region, especially Polynesia. Such an origin rules out the possibility of natural dissemination by the sea currents. Our findings corroborate the interpretation of a complex of artefacts found in the Bahı´a de Caraquez (Ecuador) as related to South-East Asian cultures. Coconut thus appears to have been brought by Austronesian seafarers from the Philippines to Ecuador about 2,250 years BP. We discuss the implications of molecular evidence for assessing the possible contribution of early trans-pacific travels to and from America to the dissemination of domesticated plants and animals
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    The Panama Tall and the Maypan hybrid coconut in Jamaica: did genetic contamination cause a loss of resistance to Lethal Yellowing?
    (2008) Angelique Berger; Patricia Lebrun; Luc Baudouin; Wayne Myrie; Michel Dollet; Basil Been
    We applied Bayesian population assignment methods to assess the trueness to type of four populations of the coconut cultivar Panama Tall (PNT) located in Jamaica and found that two of them presented a high percentage of oV-types, while genetic contamination was low in the two others. The PNT is the pollen parent of the MAYPAN hybrid, which used to be planted in Jamaica to control an epidemic disease: Lethal Yellowing. The main source of contamination was the susceptible Jamaica Tall, thus increasing the susceptibility in the resulting MAYPAN progeny. The incidence of genetic contamination seems however to be insuYcient to be the only cause of the latest outbreak of the disease. Neither the MAYPAN nor its parents can be said resistant in the present context of Jamaica.