Analysis of Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Maize Landraces from the South Maize Region of China

Understanding genetic diversity and population structure of landraces is important in utilization of these germplasm in breeding programs. In the present study, a total of 143 core maize landraces from the South Maize Region (SR) of China, which can represent the general profile of the genetic diversity in the landraces germplasm of SR, were genotyped by 54 DNA microsatellite markers. Totally, 517 alleles (ranging from 4 to 22) were detected among these landraces, with an average of 9.57 alleles per locus. The total gene diversity of these core landraces was 0.61, suggesting a rather higher level of genetic diversity. Analysis of population structure based on Bayesian method obtained the samilar result as the phylogeny neighbor-joining (NJ) method. The results indicated that the whole set of 143 core landraces could be clustered into two distinct groups. All landraces from Guangdong, Hainan, and 15 landraces from Jiangxi were clustered into group 1, while those from the other regions of SR formed the group 2. The results from the analysis of genetic diversity showed that both of groups possessed a similar gene diversity, but group 1 possessed relatively lower mean alleles per locus (6.63) and distinct alleles (91) than group 2 (7.94 and 110, respectively). The relatively high richness of total alleles and distinct alleles preserved in the core landraces from SR suggested that all these germplasm could be useful resources in germplasm enhancement and maize breeding in China.