A Single Domestication for Maize Shown by Multilocus Microsatellite Genotyping

There exists extraordinary morphological and genetic diversity among the maize landraces that have been developed by pre-Columbian cultivators. To explain this high level of diversity in maize, several authors have proposed that maize landraces were the products of multiple independent domestication...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2002-04, Vol.99 (9), p.6080-6084
Main Authors: Matsuoka, Yoshihiro, Vigouroux, Yves, Goodman, M., Jesus Sanchez G., Buckler, Edward, Doebley, John
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alleles
Biodiversity
Biological Sciences
Corn
Crop diversification
Evolution
Flowers & plants
Genes, Plant
Genetics
Genotype
Highlands
Lowlands
Microsatellite Repeats
Microsatellites
Phylogenetics
Phylogeny
Plants
Principal components analysis
Zea mays
Zea mays - genetics
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Summary:There exists extraordinary morphological and genetic diversity among the maize landraces that have been developed by pre-Columbian cultivators. To explain this high level of diversity in maize, several authors have proposed that maize landraces were the products of multiple independent domestications from their wild relative (teosinte). We present phylogenetic analyses based on 264 individual plants, each genotyped at 99 microsatellites, that challenge the multiple-origins hypothesis. Instead, our results indicate that all maize arose from a single domestication in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago. Our analyses also indicate that the oldest surviving maize types are those of the Mexican highlands with maize spreading from this region over the Americas along two major paths. Our phylogenetic work is consistent with a model based on the archaeological record suggesting that maize diversified in the highlands of Mexico before spreading to the lowlands. We also found only modest evidence for postdomestication gene flow from teosinte into maize.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.052125199