Assessing temporal changes in genetic diversity of maize varieties using microsatellite markers

To quantify genetic diversity among modern and earlier maize cultivars, 133 varieties, representative of the maize grown in France during the last five decades, were fingerprinted using 51 SSR. The varieties were grouped into four periods. For each period, allelic richness, genetic diversity and genetic differentiation among periods were computed. A total of 239 alleles were generated. Allelic richness, in terms of number of alleles per locus, for each period was 4.5, 3.6, 3.9 and 3.6 respectively. Genetic diversity corresponding to Nei's unbiased heterozygosity was calculated, based on allelic frequencies. Values ranged from 0.56 to 0.61. Period I presented the highest genetic diversity, whereas the three other periods all presented a similar value. A great proportion of the total genetic diversity (H-T=0.59) was conserved within all periods (H-S=0.57), rather than among periods (G(ST)=0.04). The analysis of molecular variance showed that the variation among periods represented only 10% of the total molecular variation. However, the differentiation among periods, although low, was significant, except for the last two periods. Our results showed that the genetic diversity has been reduced by about 10% in the maize cultivars bred before 1976 compared to those bred after 1985. The very low differentiation (G(ST)=0.21%) observed among cultivars of the last two decades should alert French maize breeders to enlarge genetic basis in their variety breeding programmes.