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Abstract Detail



Crops and Wild Relatives

Kates, Heather [1], Soltis, Douglas [2], Soltis, Pamela S. [3].

Comparative characterization of the domestication process in two independently domesticated pumpkin species.

Studies of domestication in an increasingly diverse group of crops enrich our understanding of the consequences of domestication. Our comparison of how different wild origins and breeding practices produce current crop diversity of two independently domesticated pumpkin species challenge our expectation that domestication is reliably accompanied by a genetic bottleneck. We performed targeted genomic sequencing of 48 unrelated accessions for each species including wild, landrace, and improved lines and identifed over 15,000 SNPs for each species. Population analysis of allelic diversity of SNP data shows a single domestication event in each species and suggests specific geographic regions where wild relatives are most similar to the respective domesticate. Results of these analyses also reveal that the locally important Mexican domesticate Cucurbita argyrosperma experienced a domestication bottleneck consistent with our expectations of the genetic consequences of domestication. In contrast, the phenotypically diverse and economically important C. maxima ssp. maxima does not exhibit a reduction in genetic diversity relative to its wild ancestor. These results improve our knowledge about the domestication of two Cucurbita species and add to our understanding of how the reduction of genetic diversity during the processes of domestication and trait improvement impacts the breeding potential and utility of current crops.


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1 - University of Florida, PO Box 117800, Gainesville, FL, 32611-7800, United States
2 - Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, 1659 Museum Road, Gainesville, Florida, 32611, United States
3 - Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, 1659 Museum Road, Gainesville, Florida, 32611, United States

Keywords:
Cucurbits
domestication
population genomics
positive selection.

Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 9, Crops and Wild Relatives
Location: 109/Mayo Civic Center
Date: Monday, July 23rd, 2018
Time: 2:00 PM
Number: 9003
Abstract ID:638
Candidate for Awards:None


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