The genome of the Golden Delicious apple, published this fall, helped resolve a long-standing controversy about just where the domesticated apple came from. Scientists have now pinpointed Malus sieversii, a wild species of apple native to Kazakhstan, as the ancestor of the Macouns and Jonagolds filling our farmers' markets today. The apple shares many of its genes and chromosomes with other fruits, including the pear, the peach, and the strawberry.