Population structure and genetic diversity of maize landraces from the Southwest Maize Region of China.

摘要

Landraces are important genetic resources for crop improvement and genetic studies. Two hundred and forty seven maize landraces from the Southwest Maize Region (SWR) of China preserved in China National Genebank, which are members of a core collection established previously, were assayed to reveal the level of genetic diversity and population structure of the landraces in SWR, by using 53 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. A total of 599 alleles (11.30 per locus) and a relatively high level of genetic diversity (0.60) were detected in these 247 landrace accessions, indicating abundant genetic variations of the maize landraces from this region and valuable germplasm which can be used in maize improvement. Revealed by the phylogenetic analysis, the 247 landraces from SWR were divided into three distinct clusters. The results were further confirmed by modelbased clustering method and Bayesian approach. Chisquare test revealed that the groups resulting from these statistical analyses agreed quite well with geographical sources of the accessions in SWR.