Genetic patterns of domestication in pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.) and wild Cajanus relatives

Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan) is an annual or short-lived perennial food legume of acute regional importance, providing significant protein to the human diet in less developed regions of Asia and Africa. Due to its narrow genetic base, pigeonpea improvement is increasingly reliant on introgression of valuable traits from wild forms, a practice that would benefit from knowledge of its domestication history and relationships to wild species. Here we use 752 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) derived from 670 low copy orthologous genes to clarify the evolutionary history of pigeonpea (79 accessions) and its wild relatives (31 accessions). We identified three well-supported lineages that are geographically clustered and congruent with previous nuclear and plastid sequence-based phylogenies. Among all species analyzed Cajanus cajanifolius is the most probable progenitor of cultivated pigeonpea. Multiple lines of evidence suggest recent gene flow between cultivated and non-cultivated forms, as well as historical gene flow between diverged but sympatric species. Evidence supports that primary domestication occurred in India, with a second and more recent nested population bottleneck focused in tropical regions that is the likely consequence of pigeonpea breeding. We find abundant allelic variation and genetic diversity among the wild relatives, with the exception of wild species from Australia for which we report a third bottleneck unrelated to domestication within India. Domesticated C. cajan possess 75% less allelic diversity than the progenitor clade of wild Indian species, indicating a severe "domestication bottleneck" during pigeonpea domestication.     

Brassica rapa Domestication: Untangling Wild and Feral Forms and Convergence of Crop Morphotypes

The study of domestication contributes to our knowledge of evolution and crop genetic resources. Human selection has shaped wild Brassica rapa into diverse turnip, leafy, and oilseed crops. Despite its worldwide economic importance and potential as a model for understanding diversification under domestication, insights into the number of domestication events and initial crop(s) domesticated in B. rapa have been limited due to a lack of clarity about the wild or feral status of conspecific noncrop relatives. To address this gap and reconstruct the domestication history of B. rapa, we analyzed 68,468 genotyping-by-sequencing-derived single nucleotide polymorphisms for 416 samples in the largest diversity panel of domesticated and weedy B. rapa to date. To further understand the center of origin, we modeled the potential range of wild B. rapa during the mid-Holocene. Our analyses of genetic diversity across B. rapa morphotypes suggest that noncrop samples from the Caucasus, Siberia, and Italy may be truly wild, whereas those occurring in the Americas and much of Europe are feral. Clustering, tree-based analyses, and parameterized demographic inference further indicate that turnips were likely the first crop type domesticated, from which leafy types in East Asia and Europe were selected from distinct lineages. These findings clarify the domestication history and nature of wild crop genetic resources for B. rapa, which provides the first step toward investigating cases of possible parallel selection, the domestication and feralization syndrome, and novel germplasm for Brassica crop improvement.     

Simple sequence repeats reveal uneven distribution of genetic diversity in chloroplast genomes of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Brassica oleracea</Emphasis> L. and (<Emphasis Type="Italic">n </Emphasis>= 9) wild relatives

Diversity in the chloroplast genome of 171 accessions representing the Brassica ‘C’ (n = 9) genome, including domesticated and wild B. oleracea and nine inter-fertile related wild species, was investigated using six chloroplast SSR (microsatellite) markers. The lack of diversity detected among 105 cultivated and wild accessions of B. oleracea contrasted starkly with that found within its wild relatives. The vast majority of B. oleracea accessions shared a single haplotype, whereas as many as six haplotypes were detected in two wild species, B. villosa Biv. and B. cretica Lam.. The SSRs proved to be highly polymorphic across haplotypes, with calculated genetic diversity values (H) of 0.23–0.87. In total, 23 different haplotypes were detected in C genome species, with an additional five haplotypes detected in B. rapa L. (A genome n = 10) and another in B. nigra L. (B genome, n = 8). The low chloroplast diversity of B. oleracea is not suggestive of multiple domestication events. The predominant B. oleracea haplotype was also common in B. incana Ten. and present in low frequencies in B. villosa, B. macrocarpa Guss, B. rupestris Raf. and B. cretica. The chloroplast SSRs reveal a wealth of diversity within wild Brassica species that will facilitate further evolutionary and phylogeographic studies of this important crop genus. Electronic supplementary material Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at and is accessible for authorized users.     

Ex Situ Conservation Priorities for the Wild Relatives of Potato (Solanum L. Section Petota)

Crop wild relatives have a long history of use in potato breeding, particularly for pest and disease resistance, and are expected to be increasingly used in the search for tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses. Their current and future use in crop improvement depends on their availability in ex situ germplasm collections. As these plants are impacted in the wild by habitat destruction and climate change, actions to ensure their conservation ex situ become ever more urgent. We analyzed the state of ex situ conservation of 73 of the closest wild relatives of potato (Solanum section Petota) with the aim of establishing priorities for further collecting to fill important gaps in germplasm collections. A total of 32 species (43.8%), were assigned high priority for further collecting due to severe gaps in their ex situ collections. Such gaps are most pronounced in the geographic center of diversity of the wild relatives in Peru. A total of 20 and 18 species were assessed as medium and low priority for further collecting, respectively, with only three species determined to be sufficiently represented currently. Priorities for further collecting include: (i) species completely lacking representation in germplasm collections; (ii) other high priority taxa, with geographic emphasis on the center of species diversity; (iii) medium priority species. Such collecting efforts combined with further emphasis on improving ex situ conservation technologies and methods, performing genotypic and phenotypic characterization of wild relative diversity, monitoring wild populations in situ, and making conserved wild relatives and their associated data accessible to the global research community, represent key steps in ensuring the long-term availability of the wild genetic resources of this important crop.     

Origins of the amphiploid species <Emphasis Type="Italic">Brassica napus</Emphasis>L. investigated by chloroplast and nuclear molecular markers

Background  

The amphiploid species Brassica napus (oilseed rape, Canola) is a globally important oil crop yielding food, biofuels and industrial compounds such as lubricants and surfactants. Identification of the likely ancestors of each of the two genomes (designated A and C) found in B. napus would facilitate incorporation of novel alleles from the wider Brassica genepool in oilseed rape crop genetic improvement programmes. Knowledge of the closest extant relatives of the genotypes involved in the initial formation of B. napus would also allow further investigation of the genetic factors required for the formation of a stable amphiploid and permit the more efficient creation of fully fertile re-synthesised B. napus. We have used a combination of chloroplast and nuclear genetic markers to investigate the closest extant relatives of the original maternal progenitors of B. napus. This was based on a comprehensive sampling of the relevant genepools, including 83 accessions of A genome B. rapa L. (both wild and cultivated types), 94 accessions of B. napus and 181 accessions of C genome wild and cultivated B. oleracea L. and related species.     

Brassica taxonomy based on nuclear restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs)

Summary RFLPs were used to study genome evolution and phylogeny in Brassica and related genera. Thirtyeight accessions, including 10 accessions of B. rapa (syn. campestris), 9 cultivated types of B. oleracea, 13 nine-chromosome wild brassicas related to B. oleracea, and 6 other species in Brassica and allied genera, were examined with more then 30 random genomic DNA probes, which identified RFLPs mapping to nine different linkage groups of the B. rapa genome. Based on the RFLP data, phylogenetic trees were constructed using the PAUP microcomputer program. Within B. rapa, accessions of pak choi, narinosa, and Chinese cabbage from East Asia constituted a group distinct from turnip and wild European populations, consistent with the hypothesis that B. rapa had two centers of domestication. A wild B. rapa accession from India was positioned in the tree between European types and East Asian types, suggesting an evolutionary pathway from Europe to India, then to South China. Cultivated B. oleracea morphotypes showed monophyletic origin with wild B. oleracea or B. alboglabra as possible ancestors. Various kales constitute a highly diverse group, and represent the primitive morphotypes of cultivated B. oleracea from which cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, etc. probably have evolved. Cauliflower was found to be closely related to broccoli, whereas cabbage was closely related to leafy kales. A great diversity existed among the 13 collections of nine-chromosome wild brassicas related to B. oleracea, representing various taxonomic states from subspecies to species. Results from these studies suggested that two basic evolutionary pathways exist for the diploid species examined. One pathway gave rise to B. fruticulosa, B. nigra, and Sinapis arvensis, with B. adpressa or a close relative as the initial ancestor. Another pathway gave rise to B. oleracea and B. rapa, with Diplotaxis erucoides or a close relative as the initial ancestor. Raphanus sativus and Eruca sativus represented intermediate types between the two lineages, and might have been derived from introgression or hybridization between species belonging to different lineages. Molecular evidence for an ascending order of chromosome numbers in the evolution of Brassica and allied genera was obtained on the basis of RFLP data and phylogenetic analysis.     

Genetic diversity, structure, gene flow and evolutionary relationships within the Sorghum bicolor wild�Cweedy�Ccrop complex in a western African region

Gene flow between domesticated plants and their wild relatives is one of the major evolutionary processes acting to shape their structure of genetic diversity. Earlier literature, in the 1970s, reported on the interfertility and the sympatry of wild, weedy and cultivated sorghum belonging to the species Sorghum bicolor in most regions of sub-Saharan Africa. However, only a few recent surveys have addressed the geographical and ecological distribution of sorghum wild relatives and their genetic structure. These features are poorly documented, especially in western Africa, a centre of diversity for this crop. We report here on an exhaustive in situ collection of wild, weedy and cultivated sorghum assembled in Mali and in Guinea. The extent and pattern of genetic diversity were assessed with 15 SSRs within the cultivated pool (455 accessions), the wild pool (91 wild and weedy forms) and between them. F (ST) and R (ST) statistics, distance-based trees, Bayesian clustering methods, as well as isolation by distance models, were used to infer evolutionary relationships within the wild-weedy-crop complex. Firstly, our analyses highlighted a strong racial structure of genetic diversity within cultivated sorghum (F (ST) = 0.40). Secondly, clustering analyses highlighted the introgressed nature of most of the wild and weedy sorghum and grouped them into two eco-geographical groups. Such closeness between wild and crop sorghum could be the result of both sorghum's domestication history and preferential post-domestication crop-to-wild gene flow enhanced by farmers' practices. Finally, isolation by distance analyses showed strong spatial genetic structure within each pool, due to spatially limited dispersal, and suggested consequent gene flow between the wild and the crop pools, also supported by R (ST) analyses. Our findings thus revealed important features for the collection, conservation and biosafety of domesticated and wild sorghum in their centre of diversity.     

The Domestication Syndrome in Phoenix dactylifera Seeds: Toward the Identification of Wild Date Palm Populations

Investigating crop origins is a priority to understand the evolution of plants under domestication, develop strategies for conservation and valorization of agrobiodiversity and acquire fundamental knowledge for cultivar improvement. The date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) belongs to the genus Phoenix, which comprises 14 species morphologically very close, sometimes hardly distinguishable. It has been cultivated for millennia in the Middle East and in North Africa and constitutes the keystone of oasis agriculture. Yet, its origins remain poorly understood as no wild populations are identified. Uncultivated populations have been described but they might represent feral, i.e. formerly cultivated, abandoned forms rather than truly wild populations. In this context, this study based on morphometrics applied to 1625 Phoenix seeds aims to (1) differentiate Phoenix species and (2) depict the domestication syndrome observed in cultivated date palm seeds using other Phoenix species as a “wild” reference. This will help discriminate truly wild from feral forms, thus providing new insights into the evolutionary history of this species. Seed size was evaluated using four parameters: length, width, thickness and dorsal view surface. Seed shape was quantified using outline analyses based on the Elliptic Fourier Transform method. The size and shape of seeds allowed an accurate differentiation of Phoenix species. The cultivated date palm shows distinctive size and shape features, compared to other Phoenix species: seeds are longer and elongated. This morphological shift may be interpreted as a domestication syndrome, resulting from the long-term history of cultivation, selection and human-mediated dispersion. Based on seed attributes, some uncultivated date palms from Oman may be identified as wild. This opens new prospects regarding the possible existence and characterization of relict wild populations and consequently for the understanding of the date palm origins. Finally, we here describe a pipeline for the identification of the domestication syndrome in seeds that could be used in other crops.     

The genetic diversity and evolution of field pea (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Pisum</Emphasis>) studied by high throughput retrotransposon based insertion polymorphism (RBIP) marker analysis

Background  

The genetic diversity of crop species is the result of natural selection on the wild progenitor and human intervention by ancient and modern farmers and breeders. The genomes of modern cultivars, old cultivated landraces, ecotypes and wild relatives reflect the effects of these forces and provide insights into germplasm structural diversity, the geographical dimension to species diversity and the process of domestication of wild organisms. This issue is also of great practical importance for crop improvement because wild germplasm represents a rich potential source of useful under-exploited alleles or allele combinations. The aim of the present study was to analyse a major Pisum germplasm collection to gain a broad understanding of the diversity and evolution of Pisum and provide a new rational framework for designing germplasm core collections of the genus.     

Facilitated by nature and agriculture: performance of a specialist herbivore improves with host-plant life history evolution, domestication, and breeding

Plant defenses against herbivores are predicted to change as plant lineages diversify, and with domestication and subsequent selection and breeding in the case of crop plants. We addressed whether defense against a specialist herbivore declined coincidently with life history evolution, domestication, and breeding within the grass genus Zea (Poaceae). For this, we assessed performance of corn leafhopper (Dalbulus maidis) following colonization of one of four Zea species containing three successive transitions: the evolutionary transition from perennial to annual life cycle, the agricultural transition from wild annual grass to primitive crop cultivar, and the agronomic transition from primitive to modern crop cultivar. Performance of corn leafhopper was measured through seven variables relevant to development speed, survivorship, fecundity, and body size. The plants included in our study were perennial teosinte (Zea diploperennis), Balsas teosinte (Zea mays parviglumis), a landrace maize (Zea mays mays), and a hybrid maize. Perennial teosinte is a perennial, iteroparous species, and is basal in Zea; Balsas teosinte is an annual species, and the progenitor of maize; the landrace maize is a primitive, genetically diverse cultivar, and is ancestral to the hybrid maize; and, the hybrid maize is a highly inbred, modern cultivar. Performance of corn leafhopper was poorest on perennial teosinte, intermediate on Balsas teosinte and landrace maize, and best on hybrid maize, consistent with our expectation of declining defense from perennial teosinte to hybrid maize. Overall, our results indicated that corn leafhopper performance increased most with the agronomic transition, followed by the life history transition, and least with the domestication transition.     

The western Mediterranean region provided the founder population of domesticated narrow-leafed lupin

Key message

This study revealed that the western Mediterranean provided the founder population for domesticated narrow-leafed lupin and that genetic diversity decreased significantly during narrow-leafed lupin domestication.

Abstract

The evolutionary history of plants during domestication profoundly shaped the genome structure and genetic diversity of today’s crops. Advances in next-generation sequencing technologies allow unprecedented opportunities to understand genome evolution in minor crops, which constitute the majority of plant domestications. A diverse set of 231 wild and domesticated narrow-leafed lupin (Lupinus angustifolius L.) accessions were subjected to genotyping-by-sequencing using diversity arrays technology. Phylogenetic, genome-wide divergence and linkage disequilibrium analyses were applied to identify the founder population of domesticated narrow-leafed lupin and the genome-wide effect of domestication on its genome. We found wild western Mediterranean population as the founder of domesticated narrow-leafed lupin. Domestication was associated with an almost threefold reduction in genome diversity in domesticated accessions compared to their wild relatives. Selective sweep analysis identified no significant footprints of selection around domestication loci. A genome-wide association study identified single nucleotide polymorphism markers associated with pod dehiscence. This new understanding of the genomic consequences of narrow-leafed lupin domestication along with molecular marker tools developed here will assist plant breeders more effectively access wild genetic diversity for crop improvement.

     

Arthropod diversity and community composition on wild and cultivated rice

• 1 Most crop plants are grown far from their region of origin and have been significantly altered by human selection. Given the importance of biodiversity in ecosystem function, surprisingly little is known about the effect of domestication on arthropod diversity and community composition.
• 2 Arthropod diversity and species abundance were compared with three genotypes of cultivated rice Oryza sativa L. and two genotypes of wild rice O. rufipogon Griff. in southern Luzon, the Philippines.
• 3 Domestication had a small but positive effect on total arthropod diversity. Arthropod species richness was highest on the cultivar IR64 and lowest on one of the O. rufipogon genotypes, although arthropod community composition was similar across rice genotypes.
• 4 Total arthropod abundance and the relative abundance of guilds did not differ between wild and cultivated rice. All common herbivores, however, responded to rice domestication. Stem‐boring moths and several sap‐sucking herbivores benefited from domestication, although domestication reduced densities of the wolf spider Pardosa pseudoannulata Boesenberg et Strand.
• 5 By contrast to previous assumptions, crop domestication may not always decrease arthropod diversity. We did not detect any changes in biodiversity or community composition suggesting that rice domestication has altered the capacity of the arthropod community to regulate herbivores.

     

The complex history of the olive tree: from Late Quaternary diversification of Mediterranean lineages to primary domestication in the northern Levant

The location and timing of domestication of the olive tree, a key crop in Early Mediterranean societies, remain hotly debated. Here, we unravel the history of wild olives (oleasters), and then infer the primary origins of the domesticated olive. Phylogeography and Bayesian molecular dating analyses based on plastid genome profiling of 1263 oleasters and 534 cultivated genotypes reveal three main lineages of pre-Quaternary origin. Regional hotspots of plastid diversity, species distribution modelling and macrofossils support the existence of three long-term refugia; namely the Near East (including Cyprus), the Aegean area and the Strait of Gibraltar. These ancestral wild gene pools have provided the essential foundations for cultivated olive breeding. Comparison of the geographical pattern of plastid diversity between wild and cultivated olives indicates the cradle of first domestication in the northern Levant followed by dispersals across the Mediterranean basin in parallel with the expansion of civilizations and human exchanges in this part of the world.     

Assessment of genetic relationships between cultivated arracacha (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Arracacia xanthorrhiza</Emphasis> Bancr.) and its wild close relatives in the area of domestication using microsatellite markers

Arracacha (Arracacia xanthorrhiza Bancr.) is an asexual propagated root crop domesticated in the Andean highlands, which exists naturally with polycarpic and monocarpic forms. Wild A. xanthorrhiza are present in the area of domestication and can occasionally be mistaken in the same field for a crop or a weed. To study genetic relationships between cultivated arracacha and the wild forms, we surveyed the diversity of 178 plant samples at 11 microsatellite (SSR) loci. As expected, wild A. xanthorrhiza forms showed a significantly higher allelic diversity for all the examined SSR markers. The cultivated pool showed an excess of heterozygosity as opposed to a deficit found in the wild compartment. High Fst values and AMOVA analysis suggest that the cultivated variety has genetically differentiated from the wild forms and is more related to the wild polycarpic than to the monocarpic. Both the wild forms were well distinguished from the cultivars. Nevertheless, among a set of F1 experimental hybrids (cultivated?×?wild polycarpic), some other genotypes were revealed, also being admixed. Our results highlight a large genetic base available in the wild populations of A. xanthorrhiza with potential implications for the utilization and breeding of this promising crop.     

Genetic diversity,core collection and breeding history of Pleurotus ostreatus in China

Pleurotus ostreatus is one of the most widespread and favourably cultivated mushrooms in China. The cultivated strains of this species have been frequently exchanged domestically and internationally, but no detailed breeding history has been documented. The frequent domestic and international exchange of strains combined with a non-detailed historical documentation of breeding might have led to confusion about strain names and genetic background. In this study, 91 strains of P. ostreatus, including 57 cultivated and 34 wild strains, were analysed using 21 simple sequence repeat markers developed from the genomic sequence of “P. cf. floridanus”. Among the cultivated strains, 46 were found to possess different allelic patterns. The remaining 11 strains were clustered into five groups, each with their own private alleles, suggesting that 10.5% (6/57) of the cultivated strains were previously labelled with improper names. Our analyses indicate that wild strains harbored greater genetic diversity than the cultivated strains. With regard to the cultivation history of P. ostreatus, the cultivated strains in China have three sources: direct introduction from Europe, domestication from wild strains from China, or hybridisation of the European and Chinese strains. Furthermore, we propose a core collection of P. ostreatus with 34 strains, including 13 wild and 21 cultivated strains. The allele retention proportion of the core collection for the entire collection was 100%.     

High‐throughput multiplex cpDNA resequencing clarifies the genetic diversity and genetic relationships among Brassica napus,Brassica rapa and Brassica oleracea

Brassica napus (rapeseed) is a recent allotetraploid plant and the second most important oilseed crop worldwide. The origin of B. napus and the genetic relationships with its diploid ancestor species remain largely unresolved. Here, chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) from 488 B. napus accessions of global origin, 139 B. rapa accessions and 49 B. oleracea accessions were populationally resequenced using Illumina Solexa sequencing technologies. The intraspecific cpDNA variants and their allelic frequencies were called genomewide and further validated via EcoTILLING analyses of the rpo region. The cpDNA of the current global B. napus population comprises more than 400 variants (SNPs and short InDels) and maintains one predominant haplotype (Bncp1). Whole‐genome resequencing of the cpDNA of Bncp1 haplotype eliminated its direct inheritance from any accession of the B. rapa or B. oleracea species. The distribution of the polymorphism information content (PIC) values for each variant demonstrated that B. napus has much lower cpDNA diversity than B. rapa; however, a vast majority of the wild and cultivated B. oleracea specimens appeared to share one same distinct cpDNA haplotype, in contrast to its wild C‐genome relatives. This finding suggests that the cpDNA of the three Brassica species is well differentiated. The predominant B. napus cpDNA haplotype may have originated from uninvestigated relatives or from interactions between cpDNA mutations and natural/artificial selection during speciation and evolution. These exhaustive data on variation in cpDNA would provide fundamental data for research on cpDNA and chloroplasts.     

Accessing and exploiting genes of breeding value of distant relatives of crop Brassicas

The Brassicas are an important group of crops in India yielding edible oils and many vegetables. For improving cultivated Brassicas, the wild relatives are of considerable value. The Brassica group of seed oil and vegetables comprises six cultivated species, out of which three are diploids and three are digenomic tetraploids. Brassica juncea is the major seed oil crop in India which can be improved for several traits by incorporating genes from its distant relatives. The early work in India relating to genome manipulation consisted of synthesis of B. juncea by crossing B. campestris with B. nigra, experimental resynthesis of Brassica species and non-homologous pairing and genetic exchange at the interspecific level. The alloploid species B. napus and B. carinata have not been successful in India due to agrometereological limitations. However, synthetic forms of B. napus have been produced which have a desirable maturity period with good yield potential. Also, through non-homologous pairing, pod shatter resistant B. napus has been obtained, B. napus ordinarily suffers from pod shattering. Similarly, synthetic forms of B. carinata have been derived from reciprocal crosses between morphotypes of B. oleracea and B. nigra and also through protoplast fusion of B. nigra with B. oleracea. Molecular analysis has revealed that one of the somatic hybrids had a novel cytoplasmic combination which carried B. nigra mitochondrial and B. oleracea chloroplast genomes. A range of wild and weedy species related to crop Brassicas possess extensive genetic variability. Work for utilizing this variability included hybridization between wild and crop species, analysis of chromosome pairing and induction of alloploidy. Among Brassicas of interest to India, protoplast culture and regeneration has been successful in the case of B. oleracea, B. juncea, B. nigra and B. carinata (cultivated species) and Eruca sativa and Diplotaxis muralis (related wild species). Polyethylene glycol mediated protoplast fusion has been the most commonly used method in India for producing somatic hybrids involving Brassicas. The eight somatic hybrids produced and studied showed that in the majority of cases the fusions led to symmetric hybrids combining the complete genomes of the donor species. For developing suitable male sterile lines, B. juncea, B. campestris and B. napus nuclei have been combined with the cytoplasm of six wild species and stable male steriles have been developed. Protoplast fusion methodology has been used extensively for improving these CMS by manipulating cytoplasmic organelles, including production of new combinations of cp and mt.     

Plant domestication slows pest evolution

Agricultural practices such as breeding resistant varieties and pesticide use can cause rapid evolution of pest species, but it remains unknown how plant domestication itself impacts pest contemporary evolution. Using experimental evolution on a comparative phylogenetic scale, we compared the evolutionary dynamics of a globally important economic pest – the green peach aphid (Myzus persicae) – growing on 34 plant taxa, represented by 17 crop species and their wild relatives. Domestication slowed aphid evolution by 13.5%, maintained 10.4% greater aphid genotypic diversity and 5.6% higher genotypic richness. The direction of evolution (i.e. which genotypes increased in frequency) differed among independent domestication events but was correlated with specific plant traits. Individual‐based simulation models suggested that domestication affects aphid evolution directly by reducing the strength of selection and indirectly by increasing aphid density and thus weakening genetic drift. Our results suggest that phenotypic changes during domestication can alter pest evolutionary dynamics.     

Genetic characterization and curation of diploid A-genome wheat species

A-genome diploid wheats represent the earliest domesticated and cultivated wheat species in the Fertile Crescent and include the donor of the wheat A sub-genome. The A-genome species encompass the cultivated einkorn (Triticum monococcum L. subsp. monococcum), wild einkorn (T. monococcum L. subsp. aegilopoides (Link) Thell.), and Triticum urartu. We evaluated the collection of 930 accessions in the Wheat Genetics Resource Center (WGRC) using genotyping by sequencing and identified 13,860 curated single-nucleotide polymorphisms. Genomic analysis detected misclassified and genetically identical (>99%) accessions, with most of the identical accessions originating from the same or nearby locations. About 56% (n = 520) of the WGRC A-genome species collections were genetically identical, supporting the need for genomic characterization for effective curation and maintenance of these collections. Population structure analysis confirmed the morphology-based classifications of the accessions and reflected the species geographic distributions. We also showed that T. urartu is the closest A-genome diploid to the A-subgenome in common wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) through phylogenetic analysis. Population analysis within the wild einkorn group showed three genetically distinct clusters, which corresponded with wild einkorn races α, β, and γ described previously. The T. monococcum genome-wide F_ST scan identified candidate genomic regions harboring a domestication selection signature at the Non-brittle rachis 1 (Btr1) locus on the short arm of chromosome 3A^m at ∼70 Mb. We established an A-genome core set (79 accessions) based on allelic diversity, geographical distribution, and available phenotypic data. The individual species core set maintained at least 79% of allelic variants in the A-genome collection and constituted a valuable genetic resource to improve wheat and domesticated einkorn in breeding programs.

Genotyping diploid A-genome relatives of wheat uncovered high genetic diversity and unique evolutionary relationships giving insight to the effective use of this germplasm for wheat improvement.     

Next-generation sequencing based genotyping,cytometry and phenotyping for understanding diversity and evolution of guinea yams

Key message

Genotyping by sequencing (GBS) is used to understand the origin and domestication of guinea yams, including the contribution of wild relatives and polyploidy events to the cultivated guinea yams.

Abstract

Patterns of genetic diversity within and between two cultivated guinea yams (Dioscorea rotundata and D. cayenensis) and five wild relatives (D. praehensilis, D. mangenotiana, D. abyssinica, D. togoensis and D. burkilliana) were investigated using next-generation sequencing (genotyping by sequencing, GBS). Additionally, the two cultivated species were assessed for intra-specific morphological and ploidy variation. In guinea yams, ploidy level is correlated with species identity. Using flow cytometry a single ploidy level was inferred across D. cayenensis (3x, N = 21), D. praehensilis (2x, N = 7), and D. mangenotiana (3x, N = 5) accessions, whereas both diploid and triploid (or aneuploid) accessions were present in D. rotundata (N = 11 and N = 32, respectively). Multi-dimensional scaling and maximum parsimony analyses of 2,215 SNPs revealed that wild guinea yam populations form discrete genetic groupings according to species. D. togoensis and D. burkilliana were most distant from the two cultivated yam species, whereas D. abyssinica, D. mangenotiana, and D. praehensilis were closest to cultivated yams. In contrast, cultivated species were genetically less clearly defined at the intra-specific level. While D. cayenensis formed a single genetic group, D. rotundata comprised three separate groups consisting of; (1) a set of diploid individuals genetically similar to D. praehensilis, (2) a set of diploid individuals genetically similar to D. cayenensis, and (3) a set of triploid individuals. The current study demonstrates the utility of GBS for assessing yam genomic diversity. Combined with morphological and biological data, GBS provides a powerful tool for testing hypotheses regarding the evolution, domestication and breeding of guinea yams.