From Climate to the Genome: An Insight Towards Genome-Wide Changes of Wild Narrow-Leafed Lupin in Different Climates

Agriculture is facing the 'perfect storm' of continued population growth and climate change, which could adversely affect our ability to secure global food supply. While there are lots of valuable diversity in wild plants, humans are extensively relying on a small number of cultivated plants for their food. The ability of wild plants to fit into different climatic regions offers great potential to crop breeders who can apply this knowledge in the domestication of wild species. To this end, we investigated the genome-wide diversity of wild narrow-leafed lupins from Eastern and Western Mediterranean, which revealed clear differences in their haplotype blocks for flowering time candidate genes. Molecular phylogeography supported our geographical differentiation. Furthermore, we performed a genome-wide association test applying climatic variables as pseudo traits. The association found between one of these climatic variables and our SNPs markers draws attention to the regions of the genome which may hold value for breeding purposes.