| NSF Org: |
DEB Division Of Environmental Biology |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | March 11, 2015 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | March 11, 2015 |
| Award Number: | 1501326 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Andrea Weeks
DEB Division Of Environmental Biology BIO Directorate for Biological Sciences |
| Start Date: | July 1, 2015 |
| End Date: | June 30, 2018 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $18,850.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $18,850.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
11200 SW 8TH ST MIAMI FL US 33199-2516 (305)348-2494 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
11200 SW 8TH ST MIAMI FL US 33199-0001 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | PHYLOGENETIC SYSTEMATICS |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.074 |
ABSTRACT
The mango was first domesticated in India more than 4,000 years ago. Today, mangoes are grown on six continents and are one of the world's most important tropical fruits. In the face of climate change and a growing human population, agriculture must strive to improve crop yields while facing new and variable climatic conditions. Traits to deal with these stressors, like drought tolerance and disease resistance, can be introduced into crops through crop breeding programs. Although hundreds of plant species have undergone domestication, many concepts about the impacts of domestication on genetic diversity have come from research focusing on short-lived crops like maize and rice. This focus has left gaps in our knowledge about domestication in other plant species, such as fruit trees. During the process of domestication, many crops lose genetic diversity, which can result in the unintentional loss of beneficial traits that could be useful for agriculture. However, some evidence that suggests long-lived plants, like fruit trees, may be less susceptible to the negative impacts of domestication. This project will build on recent efforts to expand scientific insight into the domestication of non-staple crops by providing a basic understanding of the evolutionary history of the mango, and will lay the groundwork for future breeding programs to improve its agricultural qualities.
Following its original domestication, the mango, Mangifera indica L. (Anacardiaceae), was dispersed throughout the tropics and warm subtropics. However, the eastward and westward migrations of Mangifera indica may have had strikingly different effects on the genetic structure and diversity of cultivated mango. During its journey westward through Africa and on to the Americas, Mangifera indica suffered a series of population bottlenecks, suggesting that a limited amount of the crop's genetic diversity reached the New World. Conversely, eastward expansion into Southeast Asia brought it into contact with more than 35 other Mangifera species. Morphological evidence and preliminary genetic data indicate that the genetic diversity of M. indica in SE Asia may have been bolstered by gene flow from these wild relatives. This research will use double digest restriction site associated DNA (ddRAD) sequencing to investigate genetic diversity, population differentiation, and hybridization in 192 Mangifera accessions cultivated at Botanic Gardens around the world, including 116 M. indica cultivars of known geographic origin and 76 accessions from four other regionally-cultivated Mangifera species.
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Domesticated species are vital to global food security and have also been foundational to the formulation and advancement of evolutionary theory. While humans have domesticated thousands of plant species, research has largely focused on annual crops, to the exclusion of perennials, including trees. To improve our understanding of how tree species respond to domestication, we examined the evolution and domestication of one of the world’s most important perennial fruit crops, the mango, Mangifera indica, and its wild and semi-domesticated relatives. We generated a genetic dataset suitable for studying Mangifera across evolutionary time, at the levels of genus, species, and populations.
Our research reveals, for the first time, the evolutionary relationships between the mango and its wild and semi-domesticated relatives. The results provide evidence of a previously undescribed genus and improve our understanding of the classification of Mangifera. The evolutionary relationships also provide insight into the genetic diversity and relatedness among Mangifera species, which in turn informs breeding and rootstock selection. Species within the same clade as M. indica are the most likely to be compatible rootstocks and to be able to hybridize. Additionally, the phylogeny of Mangifera suggests that this genus may provide an ideal system in which to study the parallel domestication of closely related tree species.
At the species level, we uncover evidence that M. indica hybridized with multiple congeners following its introduction into Southeast Asia, forming two hybrid lineages that may be maintained by clonal polyembryonic reproduction. Importantly, these hybrid species are also popular, cultivated fruit trees in parts of Southeast Asia.
At the population level we examined how the introduction of M. indica into new regions of the world impacted its genetic diversity. Our results show M. indica maintained high levels of genetic diversity during its introduction into the Americas. However, we found novel diversity in Southeast Asian mango cultivars, indicating that M. indica has a more complex domestication history than previously assumed. This important result provides a framework for utilizing germplasm collections and maintaining diversity within collections.
Crop improvement depends on a foundational understanding of how domestication affects crop genetic diversity as well as the standing genetic variation within cultivated germplasm. This project used a novel and integrative approach to the study of crop domestication, applying advanced sequencing techniques to phylogeny, population genomics, and hybridization genomics in a non-model system of domestication. The results of this work have both immediate applications to management of collections and breeding programs, and broader applications to the field of crop domestication and evolutionary biology.
Last Modified: 09/26/2018
Modified by: Emily Warschefsky
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