Genomic estimation of complex traits reveals ancient maize adaptation to temperate North America

By 4000 years ago, people had introduced maize to the southwestern United States; full agriculture was established quickly in the lowland deserts but delayed in the temperate highlands for 2000 years. We test if the earliest upland maize was adapted for early flowering, a characteristic of modern te...

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Published in:	Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2017-08, Vol.357 (6350), p.512-515
Main Authors:	Swarts, Kelly, Gutaker, Rafal M., Benz, Bruce, Blake, Michael, Bukowski, Robert, Holland, James, Kruse-Peeples, Melissa, Lepak, Nicholas, Prim, Lynda, Romay, M. Cinta, Ross-Ibarra, Jeffrey, de Jesus Sanchez-Gonzalez, Jose, Schmidt, Chris, Schuenemann, Verena J., Krause, Johannes, Matson, R. G., Weigel, Detlef, Buckler, Edward S., Burbano, Hernán A.
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Acclimatization - genetics Adaptation Cold Temperature Corn Cultivation Deoxyribonucleic acid Desert environments Deserts DNA Flowering Flowers - genetics Flowers - physiology Genome, Plant Genomics Highlands Lowlands Multifactorial Inheritance North America Phenotype Polygenic inheritance Population differentiation Predictions Shelters Zea mays - genetics Zea mays - physiology
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Summary:	By 4000 years ago, people had introduced maize to the southwestern United States; full agriculture was established quickly in the lowland deserts but delayed in the temperate highlands for 2000 years. We test if the earliest upland maize was adapted for early flowering, a characteristic of modern temperate maize. We sequenced fifteen 1900-year-old maize cobs from Turkey Pen Shelter in the temperate Southwest. Indirectly validated genomic models predicted that Turkey Pen maize was marginally adapted with respect to flowering, as well as short, tillering, and segregating for yellow kernel color. Temperate adaptation drove modern population differentiation and was selected in situ from ancient standing variation. Validated prediction of polygenic traits improves our understanding of ancient phenotypes and the dynamics of environmental adaptation.
ISSN:	0036-8075 1095-9203