The modern crisp apple originated in a mountainous region of Kazakhstan, according to a study which reveals a surprising two-way journey on the Silk Road for one of the world’s most popular fruit.
As travellers journeyed east and west along the Silk Road, they brought with them apple seeds from the choicest fruit they took from wild trees, researchers said. This early selection would eventually lead to the 7,500 varieties of apple that exist today
Researchers sequenced and compared the genomes of 117 diverse apple accessions, including Malus domestica and 23 wild species from North America, Europe, and east and central Asia.
They narrowed down the origin of the domesticated apple from very broad central Asia to Kazakhstan area west of Tian Shan Mountain.
Researchers discovered that the first domesticated apple had travelled to the east, hybridising with local wild apples along the way, yielding the ancestors of soft, dessert apples cultivated in China today
. Researchers also found that as the apple travelled west along the Silk Road, trees grew from dropped seeds and crossed with other wild apple varieties, including the sour European crabapple (Malus sylvestris).
They found that Malus sylvestris has contributed so extensively to the apple’s genome that the modern apple is actually more similar to the sour crabapple than to its Kazakhstan ancestor, Malus sieversii.
Kazakhstan: Know More
Kazakhstan, a Central Asian country and former Soviet republic, extends from the Caspian Sea in the west to the Altai Mountains at its eastern border with China and Russia.
Its largest metropolis, Almaty, is a long-standing trading hub whose landmarks include Ascension Cathedral, a Tsarist-era Russian Orthodox church, and the Central State Museum of Kazakhstan, displaying thousands of Kazakh artefacts.
Capital: Astana
Currency: Kazakhstani tenge
Official languages: Kazakh, Russian

Scientists have developed an injectable tissue bandage smaller than a postage stamp that can repair damaged hearts. Repairing heart tissue destroyed by a heart attack or medical condition with regenerative cells or tissues usually requires invasive open-heart surgery. Researchers at the University of Toronto in Canada have developed a technique that lets them use a small needle to inject a repair patch, without the need to open up the chest cavity. The AngioChip is a tiny patch of heart tissue with its own blood vessels and heart cells beating with a regular rhythm. If an implant requires open-heart surgery, it’s not going to be widely available to patients.

Scientists have developed the world's first plant-based Zika vaccine that may be more effective, safer and cheaper than other vaccines against the mosquito-borne virus.
Currently, there are no licensed vaccines or therapeutics available to combat Zika.
The vaccine developed by researchers from Arizona State University (ASU) in the US works against a part of a Zika viral protein, called DIII, that plays a key role for the virus to infect people.
All flaviviruses have the envelope protein on the outside part of the virus. It has three domains.
The domain III has a unique stretch of DNA for the Zika virus, and scientists exploited this to generate a robust and protective immune response that is unique for Zika. The researchers first grew the envelope protein in bacteria, then prepared the DIII protein domain in tobacco plants.
The team then performed immunisation experiments in mice, which induced antibody and cellular immune responses that have been shown to confer 100 per cent protection against multiple Zika virus strains in mice.
The team's protein-based vaccine uses the smallest and most unique part of the Zika virus that can still elicit a potent and robust immune response.
A pseudovirus which is a fake virus displays only the DIII part of the envelope protein on the surface.
The vaccine produces a potent protective immune response, but also, that it does not produce antibodies that may be cross reactive for dengue, West Nile, yellow fever or others
Zika: Know More
The worldwide Zika threat first emerged in 2015.
It was responsible for infecting millions as it swept across the Americas.
It struck great fear in pregnant women, as babies born with severe brain birth defects quickly overburdened hospitals and public health care systems.