<i>Ustilago maydis</i>populations tracked maize through domestication and cultivation in the Americas

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  • Andrew B Munkacsi
    Plant Biological Sciences Graduate Program, University of MinnesotaSt Paul, MN 55108, USA
  • Sam Stoxen
    Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of MinnesotaSt Paul, MN 55108, USA
  • Georgiana May
    The Center for Community Genetics, University of MinnesotaSt Paul, MN 55108, USA

Abstract

<jats:p>The domestication of crops and the development of agricultural societies not only brought about major changes in human interactions with the environment but also in plants' interactions with the diseases that challenge them. We evaluated the impact of the domestication of maize from teosinte and the widespread cultivation of maize on the historical demography of<jats:italic>Ustilago maydis</jats:italic>, a fungal pathogen of maize. To determine the evolutionary response of the pathogen's populations, we obtained multilocus genotypes for 1088<jats:italic>U. maydis</jats:italic>diploid individuals from two teosinte subspecies in Mexico and from maize in Mexico and throughout the Americas. Results identified five major<jats:italic>U. maydis</jats:italic>populations: two in Mexico; two in South America; and one in the United States. The two populations in Mexico diverged from the other populations at times comparable to those for the domestication of maize at 6000–10 000 years before present. Maize domestication and agriculture enforced sweeping changes in<jats:italic>U. maydis</jats:italic>populations such that the standing variation in extant pathogen populations reflects evolution only since the time of the crop's domestication.</jats:p>

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