On the evolutionary history of the domesticated apple reply

Harrison and Harrison comment on one of the conclusions of our recent article1, namely that Malus × domestica was domesticated from M. sieversii, a wild apple species still common in central Asia2. They suggest that our data do not allow us to exclude M. sylvestris (European crab apple) as one of the progenitors of M. × domestica. In regard to this comment, we here confirm our conclusion. However, we do agree that our results did not exclude the possibility that gene flow from M. sylvestris to M. × domestica could have occurred during the time of cultivation of the domesticated apple in the geographical areas where M. sylvestris was present and that, as a consequence, haplotypes of M. sylvestris origin could occasionally be traced in the domesticated apple gene pool. Nevertheless, our molecular data support the hypothesis that M. × domestica was initially directly domesticated from M. sieversii.