Abstract
Records of the occurrence of wild relatives of maize in South American lowlands are unprecedented, especially in sympatric coexistence with landraces. This fact is relevant, because regions of occurrence of wild relatives of cultivated plants should be a priority for conservation, even if they do not correspond to the center of origin of the species. The aim of this study was to identify and characterize the wild relatives of maize in the Far West of Santa Catarina, southern Brazil. Therefore, phenotypic characterization was performed for five populations, based on 22 morphological traits deemed as fundamental for classifying the species of the genus Zea, and validated through the characterization of chromosomal knobs of two populations. The occurrence and distribution of teosinte populations were described through semi-structured interviews applied to a sample of 305 farmers. A total of 136 teosinte populations were identified; 75% of them occur spontaneously, 17% are cultivated populations, and 8% occur both ways, for the same farm. Populations that were characterized morphologically had trapezoidal fruits mostly, upright tassel branch (4–18), non-prominent main branch and glabrous glumes, with two protruding outer ribs and 8 inner ribs, on average. Cytogenetic analysis identified 10 pairs of homologous chromosomes (2n = 20) with 26 knobs, located in the terminal region of all chromosomes. The similarity of these results with the information reported in the literature indicates that the five populations of wild relatives of maize in this region of Santa Catarina belong to the botanical species Zea luxurians.
Highlights
Wild relatives of cultivated plants include ancestral plant species, and other species that are related to a greater or lesser extent and share the same gene pool of the cultivated species [1,2,3,4].PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0139034 October 21, 2015Zea luxurians Populations in Southern Brazil de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES (Coordination of Personal Perfectioning of Superior Level)
This is the earliest date mentioned in the interviews. This information coincides with the origin of the 136 populations identified in this survey: 31% were bought locally, with seeds being informally produced by farmers themselves and sold to agricultural supply stores; 26% of them were cited as pre-existing on the farms; 21% were introduced when the family migrated from Rio Grande do Sul to Santa Catarina; 12% were bought from neighboring farmers; 6% of the farmers did not remember the origin and; 4% had other sources, such as dispersal by animals and agricultural machinery
The populations of the Far West of Santa Catarina evaluated in this study belong to the botanical species Zea luxurians
Summary
Wild relatives of cultivated plants include ancestral plant species, and other species that are related to a greater or lesser extent and share the same gene pool of the cultivated species [1,2,3,4].PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0139034 October 21, 2015Zea luxurians Populations in Southern Brazil de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES (Coordination of Personal Perfectioning of Superior Level). Wild relatives of cultivated plants include ancestral plant species, and other species that are related to a greater or lesser extent and share the same gene pool of the cultivated species [1,2,3,4]. Zea luxurians Populations in Southern Brazil de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES (Coordination of Personal Perfectioning of Superior Level). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript, but they gave the financial support to perform the research and translate the manuscript
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