Genetic relationships among wild and cultivated populations of peach palm (Bactris gasipaes Kunth, Palmae): evidence for multiple independent domestication events

• Published in: Genetic resources and crop evolution 2011-04, Vol.58 (4), p.571-583
• Main Authors: Hernández-Ugalde, José Alfredo, Mora-Urpí, Jorge, Rocha, Oscar J
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agriculture; Alleles; Bactris gasipaes; Bactris gasipaes var. gasipaes; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Clustering; Domestication; evolution; Fruits; Genetic markers; Genetic relationship; genetic variation; Life Sciences; Loci; microsatellite repeats; Microsatellites; Mountains; Plant Genetics and Genomics; Plant Physiology; Plant Sciences; Plant Systematics/Taxonomy/Biogeography; Population genetics; Populations; Prunus; races; Research Article; River basins; Subgroups; wild relatives
• ISSN: 0925-9864; 1573-5109
• DOI: 10.1007/s10722-010-9600-6

We studied the genetic relationship among four wild and ten cultivated populations of peach palm (Bactris gasipaes Kunth) using five microsatellite markers. Peach palm populations were grouped into two major complexes based on morphological traits (see Mora-Urpí 1984, 1993): the Occidental group, including populations found north and west of the Andes Mountains, and the Oriental group, including populations in the Amazon Basin. The Oriental group is further divided into two subgroups, the upper and eastern Amazonia. We also studied two wild relatives of peach palm from the Maracaibo basin in Venezuela. All microsatellite loci were polymorphic and the total number of alleles across all loci was 64. The number of alleles observed per locus ranged from 9 (Bg51) to 16 (Bg63; Average = 12.8 ± 2.8 alleles per locus), while the average number of alleles per population was 31.8 ± 7.3. Our data also revealed that some alleles were common to populations from the same geographical region. A dendrogram based on Rogers and Tanimoto's similarity coefficient revealed three main branches. The first branch is divided into two nodes and includes all populations from Occidental and Upper Amazonia groups; the second branch includes both populations from Eastern Amazonia, and the third branch includes both wild relatives from Maracaibo. All populations included in each node are neighbors within a geographic region, indicating that populations were finely clustered into their respective geographic groups. We propose that this clustering supports the hypothesis of several independent domestication events on both sides of the Andes, as proposed by Mora-Urpí (1993).