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Main article: Genomics of domestication

By examining 10 microsatelite loci, researchers confirmed[26] earlier metamorphic data, identifying two genetically distinct subpopulations of the cultivated coconut. One with wild-type characteristics in the Indian Ocean, the other, with domestic-type characteristics in the Pacific Ocean, with introgressive hybridisation transfering genetic material within and between the two populations[. Given that coconuts are ideally suited for ocean dispersal, individuals from one population possibly could have floated to the other. However, the locations of the admixture events are limited to Madagascar and coastal east Africa, and exclude the Seychelles. This pattern coincides with the known trade routes of Austronesian sailors. Additionally, a genetically distinct subpopulation of coconut on the Pacific coast of Latin America has undergone a genetic bottleneck resulting from a founder effect; however, its ancestral population is the Pacific coconut, which suggests Austronesian peoples may have sailed as far east as the Americas.[26]