Figure 1

Effects of domestication on total seed carotenoids and tocopherols contents. (A) Bisector plots representing total carotenoids contents and (B) total tocopherols contents of grain legumes plotted against their closest wild relatives. Data points below the dotted line (y = x) indicate that the domesticated species contained less carotenoids or tocopherols than their wild relatives. Data points show arithmetic means ± SE (n = 5). Note that the contents of total carotenoids significantly decreased following domestication (panel A; F_{domestication} = 49.0, P < 0.001 and F_{random solpe} = 32.3, P < 0.001, two-way ANOVA) but no general pattern was found for tocopherols (F_{domestication} = 0.039, P = 0.843). (C) Dependency between the variations in total seed carotenoids and tocopherols contents following domestication. Variations (Δ%) are expressed as percentages of the contents in the wild species. Data points represent means (n = 5). Pearson’s correlation was not significant (P = 0.954), indicating that the changes in carotenoids and tocopherols occurred independently.