Plant palaeogenomics has transformed the way we study plant evolution. After a slow start, the last decade has seen a shift from the study of a few genomic markers to genome-wide data and complete genomes across multiple species. These studies have changed fundamental ideas about plant domestication and evolution. The field still has great potential to unlock. Emerging approaches promise to recover genomic information from both plants and their associated microbes from macrobotanical remains, providing a new perspective to study deep-time plant-microbiome coevolution. Environmental DNA preserved in ancient sediments may soon yield complete plant genomes, expanding our ability to study population dynamics well before the rise of agriculture. Ancient genomes also provide a reservoir of lost genetic diversity that we could exploit to improve crop resilience and adaptation.
Jazmín Ramos-Madrigal (Wed,) studied this question.