Genetic Admixture in the Population of Wild Apple (Malus sieversii) from the Tien Shan Mountains, Kazakhstan

Abstract

There is growing attention given to gene flow between crops and the wild relatives as global landscapes have been rapidly converted into agricultural farm fields over the past century. Crop-to-wild introgression may advance the extinction risks of rare plants through demographic swamping and/or genetic swamping. Malus sieversii, the progenitor of the apple, is exclusively distributed along the Tien Shan mountains. Habitat fragmentation and hybridization between M. sieversii and the cultivated apples have been proposed to be the causal mechanism of the accelerated extinction risk. We examined the genetic diversity pattern of eleven wild and domesticated apple populations and assessed the gene flow between M. sieversii and the cultivated apples in Kazakhstan using thirteen nuclear microsatellite loci. On average, apple populations harbored fairly high within-population diversity, whereas population divergences were very low suggesting likely influence of human-mediated dispersal. Assignment results showed a split pattern between the cultivated and wild apples and frequent admixture among the apple populations. Coupled with the inflated contemporary migration rates, the admixture pattern might be the signature of increased human intervention within the recent past. Our study highlighted the prevalent crop to wild gene flow of apples occurring in Kazakhstan, proposing an accelerated risk of genetic swamping.

Genetic structure and geneflow of Malus across the Korean Peninsula using genotyping-by-sequencing

“…Although previous studies have examined the genetic diversity of Malus in Europe [71][72][73] and central Asia 74,75 , with several reports on cultivar 76,77 , studies on Malus in the Korean Peninsula are limited. In this study, we evaluated the genetic diversity and structure of Malus species in the East Asia, using a GBS-based analysis.…”

DNA profiling with the 20K apple SNP array reveals Malus domestica hybridization and admixture in M. sieversii, M. orientalis, and M. sylvestris genebank accessions

“…We found that the extent of M. sieversii admixture was greater in Kazakhstan than in other sampled Central Asian countries. Ha et al (2021) also measured admixture of M. sieversii and M. domestica in Kazakhstan using microsatellite markers. That study sampled 84 M. sieversii trees from regions in the east that were near Sites 4 and 5 and towards the west near Site 3 of the current study.…”

Stratification of Youth Employment and Departure Abroad with the Purpose of Work: Kazakhstan and Neighboring Countries

“…Indicators characterizing the impact of financial and economic crises on migration; 5. Indicators characterizing the impact of changes in career preferences and global outlook on the labor market of the modern youth, especially Generation Z (Forbes, 2017;Government.kz, 2020;Ha et al, 2021).…”

“…The major types of stratification, namely economic, political and professional, are closely intertwined (Semela & Cochrane, 2019). The upper economic strata simultaneously belong to the leading political and professional groups, while the poor are at the bottom of the professional hierarchy (Gurieva et al, 2020;Ha et al, 2021).…”