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. 2019 Apr 9;14(4):e0214810.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0214810. eCollection 2019.

Genetic diversity and population structure of early-maturing tropical maize inbred lines using SNP markers

Gloria Boakyewaa Adu  1 , Baffour Badu-Apraku  2 , Richard Akromah  3 , Ana Luisa Garcia-Oliveira  4 , Frederick Justice Awuku  1 , Melaku Gedil  4
Affiliations

Genetic diversity and population structure of early-maturing tropical maize inbred lines using SNP markers

Gloria Boakyewaa Adu et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Information on genetic diversity and population structure are very important in any breeding programme for the improvement of traits of interest and the development of outstanding products for commercialization. In the present study, we assessed the genetic diversity of 94 early-maturing white and yellow tropical maize inbred lines using single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. The larger number of SNP markers used in this study allowed a clearer inference of the population structure of the 94 inbred lines. Cluster analysis resolved the inbred lines into different clusters based on their pedigree, selection history and endosperm colour. However, three heterotic groups were revealed by population structure analysis, but additional field evaluation could be more informative to confirm the heterotic groups identified. Nevertheless, wide genetic variability existed among the inbred lines making them unique with the potential to contribute new beneficial alleles to maize breeding programmes in the tropics, especially in the West and Central Africa (WCA) sub-region.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Frequency distribution of pairwise genetic distances calculated based on Euclidean method for 94 tropical maize inbred lines genotyped with 15,047 SNPs.
Fig 2
Fig 2. The three sub-populations of the 94 tropical maize inbred lines using SNP markers.
A. Best delta K estimation by Evanno method. B. Estimated population structure of 94 tropical maize inbred lines as revealed by 15,047 SNP markers for K = 3. Blue, green and red colour represents sub-population 1, 2, and 3, respectively.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Clustering of 94 tropical maize inbred lines based on 15,047 SNP markers.
Clusters resulting from structure analysis are shown in blue, green and red colours. Mixed individuals that did not belong to any particular group at a 90% threshold are represented by the black colour.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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