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AOBPreview originally published online on August 18, 2007
Annals of Botany 2007 100(5):967-973; doi:10.1093/aob/mcm173
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© 2007 The Author(s)
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Genomic Screening for Artificial Selection during Domestication and Improvement in Maize

Masanori Yamasaki1,2,*, Stephen I. Wright3 and Michael D. McMullen1,4

1 Division of Plant Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri 65211, USA
2 Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo 102-8471, Japan
3 Department of Biology, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3
4 Plant Genetics Research Unit, US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Columbia, MO 65211, USA

* For correspondence. Present address: Food Resources Education and Research Center, Kobe University, Kasai, Hyogo 675-2103, Japan. E-mail yamasakim{at}tiger.kobe-u.ac.jp

Received: 27 September 2006    Returned for revision: 29 March 2007    Accepted: 3 July 2007    Published electronically: 18 August 2007

Background: Artificial selection results in phenotypic evolution. Maize (Zea mays L. ssp. mays) was domesticated from its wild progenitor teosinte (Zea mays subspecies parviglumis) through a single domestication event in southern Mexico between 6000 and 9000 years ago. This domestication event resulted in the original maize landrace varieties. The landraces provided the genetic material for modern plant breeders to select improved varieties and inbred lines by enhancing traits controlling agricultural productivity and performance. Artificial selection during domestication and crop improvement involved selection of specific alleles at genes controlling key morphological and agronomic traits, resulting in reduced genetic diversity relative to unselected genes.

Scope: This review is a summary of research on the identification and characterization by population genetics approaches of genes affected by artificial selection in maize.

Conclusions: Analysis of DNA sequence diversity at a large number of genes in a sample of teosintes and maize inbred lines indicated that approx. 2 % of maize genes exhibit evidence of artificial selection. The remaining genes give evidence of a population bottleneck associated with domestication and crop improvement. In a second study to efficiently identify selected genes, the genes with zero sequence diversity in maize inbreds were chosen as potential targets of selection and sequenced in diverse maize landraces and teosintes, resulting in about half of candidate genes exhibiting evidence for artificial selection. Extended gene sequencing demonstrated a low false-positive rate in the approach. The selected genes have functions consistent with agronomic selection for plant growth, nutritional quality and maturity. Large-scale screening for artificial selection allows identification of genes of potential agronomic importance even when gene function and the phenotype of interest are unknown. These approaches should also be applicable to other domesticated species if specific demographic conditions during domestication exist.

Key words: Maize, Zea mays L. ssp. mays, teosinte, Zea mays subspecies parviglumis, agronomic traits, artificial selection, domestication, plant breeding, DNA sequence, genetic diversity, HKA (Hudson–Kreitman–Aguadé) test, bottleneck, coalescent simulation


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