BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Bioinformatics
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1592308
The chloroplast genome elucidates the origin of mulberry in Central Asia
Provisionally accepted
- 1Northwest University, Xi'an, China
- 2'Silk Road' University of Tourism and Cultural Heritage, Samarkand, Uzbekistan
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The mulberry (Morus spp.), an economically important crop along the ancient Silk Road, is widely distributed in Central Asia, yet its origins and dispersal history in the region remain unclear.Chloroplast genomes are extensively used for species identification, evolutionary analyses, and phylogenetics. We resequenced and de novo assembled 25 chloroplast genomes from Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Our results reveal that they predominantly comprise two species: white mulberry (Morus alba), originating from East Asia, particularly China; and black mulberry (Morus nigra), native to the Caucasus and Western Asia. Strong genetic links to both eastern and western source populations indicate that bidirectional Silk Road exchanges shaped the region's mulberry population. These findings provide new insights into the geographic distribution and dispersal history of mulberries.This study enhances our understanding of the ecological and historical dynamics that shaped the spread of economically significant plants.
Keywords: Morus spp., Population diversity, Central Asia, Chloroplast genome, Silk Road
Received: 12 Mar 2025; Accepted: 04 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Yang, Yang, Ling, Ma, Zou, Ma and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Ming Zhang, Northwest University, Xi'an, China
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