Single nucleotide polymorphism discovery via genotyping by sequencing to assess population genetic structure and recurrent polyploidization in Andropogon gerardii.

Premise Of The Study: Autopolyploidy, genome duplication within a single lineage, can result in multiple cytotypes within a species. Geographic distributions of cytotypes may reflect the evolutionary history of autopolyploid formation and subsequent population dynamics including stochastic (drift) and deterministic (differential selection among cytotypes) processes. Here, we used a population genomic approach to investigate whether autopolyploidy occurred once or multiple times in Andropogon gerardii, a widespread, North American grass with two predominant cytotypes.

Methods: Genotyping by sequencing was used to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in individuals collected from across the geographic range of A. gerardii. Two independent approaches to SNP calling were used: the reference-free UNEAK pipeline and a reference-guided approach based on the sequenced Sorghum bicolor genome. SNPs generated using these pipelines were analyzed independently with genetic distance and clustering.

Key Results: Analyses of the two SNP data sets showed very similar patterns of population-level clustering of A. gerardii individuals: a cluster of A. gerardii individuals from the southern Plains, a northern Plains cluster, and a western cluster. Groupings of individuals corresponded to geographic localities regardless of cytotype: 6x and 9x individuals from the same geographic area clustered together.

Conclusions: SNPs generated using reference-guided and reference-free pipelines in A. gerardii yielded unique subsets of genomic data. Both data sets suggest that the 9x cytotype in A. gerardii likely evolved multiple times from 6x progenitors across the range of the species. Genomic approaches like GBS and diverse bioinformatics pipelines used here facilitate evolutionary analyses of complex systems with multiple ploidy levels.