TEOSINTE Research Project
Crop wild relatives represent important sources of genetic variation that could be of great aid to breeding programs, especially regarding adaptation to extreme environmental conditions [ISBN:978-1-78064-197-3]. Maize close wild relatives are teosintes, which have a wide ecogeographic distribution in Mexico spanning extreme ranges of precipitation and temperatures [doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0192676]. The identification of the genetic variants associated with adaptation to such conditions is a necessary step in order to better monitor, conserve and use such diversity in applied projects. As part of preliminary research, the Mexican partners performed an extensive teosinte sampling, including ca. 4000 individuals of 276 populations of all the 7 teosinte species and subspecies distributed in Mexico. These samples were phenotyped in a greenhouse common garden, and genotyping by sequencing (GBS) was applied yielding ca. 60,000 SNPs. Ecogeographical analyses were also performed [doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0192676]. This dataset encompasses probably the most complete teosinte sampling done so far providing genomic data at a population level. However, teosinte genomes have proved to be incredibly diverse and complex, and during the course of domestication the differences among maize and its parental teosintes ( Zea mays ssp. parviglumis and ssp. mexicana) not only included re-shuffling allele-frequencies,but also structural and expression changes [doi:10.1038/ng.2309]. Therefore, fully exploring the variation associated to teosinte adaptation to diverse environments requires new approaches. Here, we aim to identify the genetic variants associated with teosinte adaptation to different environmental conditions, in the context of the genomic changes associated with domestication. To accomplish this, we will couple the above mentioned dataset with a methodology we developed previously to identify genes that are linked with desired traits [doi:10.1038/nplants.2016.167].
Funding
This project is funded by the German Ministry for Science and Education (BMBF 031B0921).