Diversity Assessment of the Montenegrin Maize Landrace Gene Pool Maintained in Two Gene Banks.

Vojka Babić,Vladimir Vasic,Zoran Jovovic,Milosav Babic,Natalija Kravic,Violeta Andjelkovic

doi:10.3390/plants10081503

Abstract

Due to the loss of agro-biodiversity, there is a strong effort to find apparent and efficient mechanisms for the conservation and sustainable use of genetic diversity. A joint monitoring of the diversity and collections structure of the Montenegrin maize landraces conserved in the Serbian (MRIZPGB) and Montenegrin (MGB) gene banks has been conducted in order to improve the composition of the collections and to identify and eliminate possible redundancy. Based on a separate analysis of white- and yellow-orange maize landraces, it can be concluded that the diversity and evolution of distinct maize landraces grown and collected in Montenegro have been simultaneously shaped by both environmental (i.e., natural selection) and socially driven factors (farmers’ selection, migration and colonization processes of the human population). Although it has been determined that the authenticity and variability of the Montenegrin maize landraces gene pool have largely been preserved in the MRIZPGB collection, a significant amount of redundancy was observed. The obtained results will contribute to the cost-efficient conservation of the maize gene pool in the Montenegrin and Serbian gene banks. The recognized and well-preserved original variability of the MRIZPGB and MGB Montenegrin gene pool represents a valuable source for pre-breeding activities on broadening the white and flint maize breeding programmes under temperate conditions.

Highlights

According to the analysis of passport data from the MRIZP gene bank, 64, 225, and 31 accessions were collected in Montenegro during the 1960s, 1970s, and the 1980s, respectively
The implementation of the SEEDNet Project allowed for the establishment of the Montenegrin plant gene bank—MGB in 2004
A higher genetic variability of the Montenegrin maize landrace gene pool was observed in the MRIZPGB collection

Summary

Introduction

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Numerous studies underline the importance of accessions conserved in gene banks for their potential use as donors of favourable traits, especially those for overcoming different abiotic and biotic stresses [1,2,3,4,5,6]. A large number of conserved accessions, having been loaded with unfavourable traits, make numerous collections almost useless for breeding and obtaining relevant results in a reasonable period of time, as well as economically unsustainable in terms of their characterization and evaluation [7]. The foundation and maintenance of gene banks are very expensive activities; the application of various strategies for more efficient management is required

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