Environmental pressures shape regional patterns of genetic diversity and ancestry in cotton landraces.

ABSTRACT: Upland cotton has undergone extensive domestication and breeding, leading to substantial genetic improvement but also a pronounced narrowing of its genetic base. To better characterize and leverage the diversity preserved in traditional gene pools, we examined the population structure, phylogenetic relationships, and genomic signatures of selection in a globally sourced panel of cotton landraces and elite cultivars. STRUCTURE and neighbor-joining analyses based on whole-genome SNP genotyping identified four ancestral populations divided into nine major clusters. The landrace accessions formed deep, regionally coherent lineages characterized by high heterozygosity and an abundance of private alleles. Consistent with these patterns, Nei's genetic distance and pairwise F_ST estimate

SUBMITTER: Shrestha A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12678357 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature