Local Selection Shaped the Diversity of European Maize Landraces.

ABSTRACT: The introduction of populations to novel environments can lead to a loss of genetic diversity and the accumulation of deleterious mutations due to selection and demographic changes. We investigate how the recent introduction of maize to Europe shaped the genetic diversity and differentiation of European traditional maize populations and quantify the impact of its recent range expansion and consecutive breeding on the accumulation of genetic load. We use genome-wide genetic markers of almost 2000 individuals from 38 landraces, 155 elite breeding lines, and a large set of doubled haploid lines derived from two landraces to find extensive population structure within European maize, with landraces being highly differentiated even over short geographic distances. Yet, diversity change does not

SUBMITTER: Takou M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12717992 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature