Maroon Rice Genomic Diversity Reflects 350 Years of Colonial History.

ABSTRACT: Maroons in Suriname and French Guiana descend from enslaved Africans who escaped the plantations during colonial times. Maroon farmers still cultivate a large diversity of rice, their oldest staple crop. The oral history and written records of Maroons by colonial authorities provide contrasting perspectives on the origins of Maroon rice. Here, we analyzed the genomic ancestry of 136 newly sequenced Maroon rice varieties and found seven genomic groups that differ in their geographical associations. We interpreted these findings in light of ethnobotanical and archival investigations to reconstruct the historical contexts associated with the introduction of rice varieties to the Guianas. We found that two rice groups trace to West Africa, which we propose are linked to the transatlantic slave

SUBMITTER: van de Loosdrecht MS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11495330 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature