The recently hit movie "Feng Shen" has a shooting tidbit, the actor who played the young emperor Ji Fa, after filming the horseback riding scene, because of his good completion, successfully won the role of Ji Fa, and when bidding farewell to the white horse he cooperated with (the movie played "Snow Dragon Horse"), he finally fed it an apple, thanked "Snow Dragon Horse", and helped him start his journey as an actor.
Ji Fa rode home on a snow dragon horse. Image source: "Fengsheng" stills
This makes people can't help but think, if you travel to the "Feng Shen" world, what to send to Ji Fa can make him impress you?
The answer may be - Apple. Not because Ji Fa loves apples, but because he has never seen an apple cultivated.
Although Ji Fa is a character in the mythology of "Feng Shen", there is indeed this person in history, that is, King Wu of Zhou. King Ji of Zhou died around 1043 BC, and the earliest cultivated apples were introduced to China in the Yuan Dynasty (1271~1368). According to historical calculations, he really did not eat crunchy and sweet cultivated apples.
Wild apples "go west and east"
Fruit, like livestock, has been domesticated by humans before stumbling onto our tables. The many varieties of apples we eat now belong to cultivated apples, which are domesticated by continuous hybridization of wild apples, and are "evolved" species that have survived the fittest by human taste.
The origin and cultivation of apples has always been a concern of modern botanists and even literary scholars and archaeologists, and the most mainstream (not the only) saying is that the ancestors of apple cultivation are wild species of Savis apples, which traveled west to Europe along the ancient Silk Road and crossed with the eastern apples of the Caucasus and the forest apples of Eastern Europe to form a variety of European apple varieties. European apple varieties were introduced to the mainland to the east, and hybridized and domesticated with the wild apple species in the mainland, resulting in the early Chinese cotton apple, the common name of "Linyong (qín)", and then cultivated more widely.
Coincidentally, through the research of literary scholars and agronomists, the earliest written record of apples appeared in Sima Xiangru's "Shanglin Fu" written by Sima Xiangru during the Western Han Dynasty (also known as the Former Han Dynasty, 202 BC - 8 AD). The text records: "So Lu Orange Summer Ripe, Huang Gan Orange Qi, Loquat Persimmon, Tingqi (nài) Magnolia, 梬 (yǐng) Zao Yangmei, Cherry Pu Tao, Yin Fu Xue (yù) Di, Answer Hu Lizhi, Luo Hu Harem, Lie in the North Garden." ”
Among them, "Magnolia" refers to pears, and "Citrus" refers to apples. "Shanglin Fu" is the "Shanglin Fu" often said by netizens to "write on Lin Fu and get a sweetheart", in which the Shanglin Garden described is near present-day Xi'an, Shaanxi, that is, Xiqi in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties. Perhaps this is the fate of the "snow dragon horse" of the movie "Fengsheng" and Xiqi.
Lin Yong's "debut" is a fire
After the Tang Dynasty (618–907), Linyong (柰) and Nai Li were derived. It can be verified by the Tang Dynasty poet Bai Juyi's description in "The Western Province Remembers the Flower of the New Flower Tree of the Eastern Slope of Zhongzhou because of the inscription East Building": "The most remembered Dongpo red rotten xi (màn), wild peach mountain apricot water forest ring", and Zhang Xiaobiao's poem: "Bai Lian Bird Lost Mountain Peony Medicine, Red Makeup Prostitute Jealous Water Forest Ring".
Qing, Wu Qipu "Plant Name Picture Examination" Lin Yong inner page
Ringo (柰) is a fruit of the apple genus Rosaceae, which is now known as the sand fruit (flower). Lin Yong was deeply loved by Emperor Gaozong of Tang, and his cultivator Wang Fangyan received Wenlin Lang (official position) because he dedicated his own cultivated Lin Yong to Tang Gaozong, so Lin Yong was also called "Wenlin Guo".
The famous Lin Yong also "fired" all the way to Japan, when the mainland Lin Yong was introduced back to Japan by the Japanese Tang envoy, so Japan later also called the apple "Lin Yong", Japanese called "ringo", following the ancient Chinese tradition.
Ringo (bonus). Image source: Chinese Plant Image Library
So how did Nai Li and Lin Yong evolve into apples?
Apple's name first "clues"
The origin of the name "apple" is also archeological to the Tang monk in "Journey to the West". According to research, with the opening of the Silk Road in the Han Dynasty, the Eastern Jin Dynasty monk Master Fa Xian introduced Buddhist scriptures from abroad for the first time, and later Tang Dynasty Master Xuanzang introduced Buddhist scriptures into the Tang Dynasty. As a result, some flowers and fruits in Buddhism were widely spread, among which the earliest prototype of the apple "Pinpo" came from the Buddhist scriptures.
Therefore, it can be seen that in the Tang Dynasty, people felt that Pinpo and Lin Yong were similar, but they were still a little "silly and indistinguishable". It is said that the fruit may be a red-fleshed apple native to Xinjiang, which lays the groundwork for the apple.
By the Song Dynasty (960-1279), Ringo (sand fruit) was widely cultivated and ornamental, and was deeply loved. Song Huizong wrote in "Jinlin Yong You Chun Ying": "The good name is outstanding, and the reputation occupies You Chun." In March, the birds are beautiful and entertaining. In addition, the Southern Song Dynasty poet Zhu Yi wrote in "The Fruit of the Beggar Twin Peaks" (Part 2): "I smell like a Buddha's eye, and the knot is sent at the speed of the hour." From then on, compassion was cultivated and widened, and where it was contested, it was contested. ”
It can be analyzed that the Buddhist scripture translation of the Song Dynasty believed that the Pinpo fruit was the "Buddha's eye fruit", so the Pingpo native to the mainland mallow family Pingpo was attached to the Pinpo fruit, completely drawing the boundary between Pinpo and Ringo.
If you want to understand more clearly the difference between Lin Yong (Shaguo) and Pingpo, you may wish to take a look at their business cards.
- Ringo (Sand Fruit):
Sand fruit, a small tree of the apple genus Rosaceae. The crown of the sand fruit is round; The leaves are ovate or oval in shape, with very fine serrations on the edges of the blades; umbel-shaped inflorescence, born at the tip of a short branch, pink when the bud is pink, faded to white and reddish after opening; The fruit is flattened, yellow or red; The flowering period is May, and the fruit period is July-August.
Its flesh is loose, sweet and sour and aromatic and intolerant to storage; After a little storage, the flesh is sandified, so it is called sand fruit. Sand fruit is native to Gansu, Xinjiang and other places in northwest China, and is an endemic tree species in China, widely distributed in the Yellow River Basin of China and northeast China, Hebei and eastern Inner Mongolia at an altitude of 50-1300 meters.
Ringo (bonus). Image source: Chinese Plant Image Library
- Pingpo:
Pingpo, alias phoenix eye fruit, commonly known as loquat fruit, seven sister fruit, mallow family Pingpo is an arbor, its ancient name is "Pinpo", derived from Sanskrit, originally meaning "figure", meaning "acacia tree". It is produced in Guangdong, southern Guangxi and other places, and is also distributed in India, Vietnam and other places.
Pingpo. Image source: Chinese Plant Image Library
When Apple becomes an "identity" apple
According to historical sources, the first to eat cultivated apples that "recognized identity" may have been the people on horseback.
The Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368) was the first unified dynasty established by an ethnic minority, Emperor 5 and 11. The Yuan Dynasty had a vast territory, a prosperous commodity economy and overseas trade, and frequent foreign exchanges with other countries. Some improved fruits from Central Asia were paid tribute to the Yuan Empire, and apples were introduced to widespread cultivation.
This is proved by the Ming Dynasty miscellaneous playwright Zhu Youjiu's "Hundred Chapters of Yuan Palace Words": "Xinghe West Road gives the new time, and the scarlet blood is even." Held into the inner court sub-product, for a while to declare the meritorious hero. The word "Pinnae Wave" means "apple." The reason why it is called "Pingbo" is because it is also a tribute "divine fruit" in the Western Regions, and this delicious fruit is easily associated with Pinpo (Pingpo), but because there are records of Pingpo fruit (Pingpo) in the Tang Dynasty, in order to distinguish these "divine fruits", only "Pingbo" and other transliteration methods can be used to call this fruit.
"Apple" first appeared in Jia Ming's "Dietary Instructions" at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, and became an official name in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). In the agricultural book "Qunfang Spectrum Fruit Spectrum" during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, the entry for "apple" appeared, popularizing the name of apple from a more authoritative point of view.
Science + Literature
Little Apple breaks the disciplinary dimensional wall
With the development of science, botanists have proposed from a scientific perspective that cultivated apples originated in Xinjiang and provided strong evidence.
From a macro perspective, botanists have analyzed the origin of apples through diversity (ecological perspective) and trait (morphological perspective).
Diversity (ecological point of view) means that there are many types of "mother" apples in the place of origin, and they can all be used as a source of diversity for cultivated apples. Trait (morphological point of view) means that the offspring and the "mother" apple look like each other, and the personality is also similar. For example, in order to explore the origin of cultivated apples, Li Yunong's team traveled to the Caucasus and Xinjiang, spending more than ten years to find a "mother" for cultivated apples.
1. Polymorphism of Servians apples; 2. Xinjiang Saiweishi apple; 3. Polymorphism of Xinjiang Saiwei apple. Image source: References[4]
From a microscopic point of view, with the development of science and technology, the maturity of gene sequencing technology, scientists can study and satisfy curiosity about the origin of apples by observing the fine size of pollen, as well as chromosomes and DNA that are invisible to the naked eye.
Pollinology, karyotyping, and molecular markers are some of the main methods that scientists resort to. Pollinology refers to the study of the origin of plants through the morphology of plant pollen. The smaller the volume of plant pollen, the higher the degree of evolution. The study found that Xinjiang wild apple had the largest pollen volume among apple plants, which determined that Xinjiang wild apple was more primitive.
Core analysis means that taxa with polyploidy chromosomes behave more evolved and adaptable. Based on this theory, it is found that the number of chromosomes of Cyvis apple is relatively primitive, which supports that Cyvis apple is the original species of cultivated apple.
Molecular markers are similar to our common "paternity test". The DNA arrangement of different individuals is not exactly the same, and the genetic labeling of the DNA sequence of the individual by molecular markers can infer the kinship of different varieties of apples.
Genetic control: Apple can also DIY
Scientists who are curious about babies are always surprised, and through genome research, they have also figured out the "gene controller" that can control the sweetness and size of apples.
By analyzing the genetic characteristics of the population domestication and improvement process of wild ancestor species of apples, ancient varieties and modern varieties, the researchers found that changes in acidity played a key role in the domestication of apple flavor quality, and there was almost no change in genes related to sugar content. That is to say, under the premise of no change in sugar content, the acidity becomes smaller, making the apple sweeter, and the Mα1 gene, the gene that affects acidity, has also been found.
A model of fruit size and taste evolution during apple domestication in cultivation. Image source: References [8]
Not only that, scientists have also successfully solved the factors that affect the size of apples. Apple size and abscisic acid (ABA) are associated with salicylic acid (SA) expression, and the smaller the fruit, the higher its abscisic acid (ABA) and salicylic acid (SA) content.
The plant hormones ABA and SA, which are involved in plant cell division and prolongation, accumulate to high levels in low-weight fruits. Image source: References [9]
Apples are magical fruits that inspire scientists to follow in the footsteps of apples and unlock the code of plant genes.
Resources
[1] DUAN Naibin. Genomics study on the origin, evolution and domestication mechanism of cultivated apple[D].Shandong Agricultural University,2017.)
[2] FENG Tingting, ZHOU Zhiqin. Journal of Pomology,2007(02):199-203.)
[3] LUO Guihuan. Journal of Beijing Forestry University(Social Science Edition),2014,13(02):15-25.)
[4] LI Yunong. Acta Horticultural Sinica,1999(04):5-12.)
[5] SHEN Guangbin, DING Yanyan. Agricultural Archaeology,2014(06):255-259.)
[6] YANG Xiaohong, LI Yunong, LIN Peijun, et al. Pollen morphology and evolution of Malus sieversii(Ldb.) Roem of Xinjiang wild apple[J].Journal of Southwest Agricultural University,1992(01):49-54.)
[7] Duan, N., Bai, Y., Sun, H. et al. Genome re-sequencing reveals the history of apple and supports a two-stage model for fruit enlargement. Nat Commun 8, 249 (2017).
[8] Liao L, Zhang W, Zhang B, et al. Unraveling a genetic roadmap for improved taste in the domesticated apple. Mol Plant. 2021;14(9):1454-1471.
[9] Lin, Q., Chen, J., Liu, X. et al. A metabolic perspective of selection for fruit quality related to apple domestication and improvement. Genome Biol 24, 95 (2023).
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Produced by Popular Science China
Author丨Li Tong, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Executive producer丨China Science Expo