Domestication of the triticeae in the fertile crescent

About 12,000 years ago, humans began the transition from hunter-gathering to a sedentary, agriculture-based society. From its origins in the Fertile Crescent, farming expanded throughout Europe, Asia and Africa, together with various domesticated plants and animals. Where, how and why agriculture originated is still debated. Progress has been made in understanding plant domestication in the last few years. New insights were obtained mainly due to (I) the use of comprehensive germplasm collections covering the whole distribution area for each species; (II) the comparison of many wild and domesticated accessions for each species; (III) the identification of the wild progenitor in the wild gene pool and its comparison with domesticate descendants; (IV) the use of molecular fingerprinting techniques at many loci and the access to new generation high-throughput sequencing technologies; (V) the identification and cloning of genes involved in domestication; and (VI) excavation campaigns. This chapter reviews the recent knowledge on wheat, barley and rye domestication in the Fertile Crescent and covers several issues concerning the molecular knowledge of the effects induced by domestication and breeding of these crops.