Historical Introgressions from a Wild Relative of Modern Cassava Improved Important Traits and May Be Under Balancing Selection.

ABSTRACT: Introgression of alleles from wild relatives has often been adaptive in plant breeding. However, the significance of historical hybridization events in modern breeding is often not clear. Cassava (Manihot esculenta) is among the most important staple foods in the world, sustaining hundreds of millions of people in the tropics, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Widespread genotyping makes cassava a model for clonally propagated root and tuber crops in the developing world, and provides an opportunity to study the modern benefits and consequences of historical introgression. We detected large introgressed Manihot glaziovii genome-segments in a collection of 2742 modern cassava landraces and elite germplasm, the legacy of a 1930s era breeding to combat disease epidemics. African

SUBMITTER: Wolfe MD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6893375 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature