Ongoing activities within the project DIVERZEATY - Genetic diversity of Serbian maize local landraces and inbred lines

National audience; Traditional landraces adapted to local conditions harbour alleles for traits of interest and may be of valuable contribution in enhancing the stability of maize production under increasing challenges of climatic changes. It is therefore of great importance to preserve and assess local maize populations as a potential source of favourable agronomic traits. As a part of the bilateral project DIVERZEATY between Serbia and France (2014-2015), ten local landraces and ten inbred lines, derived from local landraces of the Maize Research Institute Zemun Polje gene bank and the Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops collection, were characterised at a pilot scale. The analysed accessions from diverse regions of former SFR Yugoslavia were genotyped with MaizeSNP50 BeadChip and allelic frequencies for landraces were estimated from the bulked DNA. Principal coordinate analyses showed the genotypes cover a range of diversity. Four local dent landraces grouped with Corn Belt populations, four populations grouped closely to European OPVs and Northern flints, one landrace with Italian flints and one was grouped in the Mexican cluster within the first two axes and with Corn Belt on the third and fourth coordinates. Two inbred lines, developed from the Montenegrin landraces, and one inbred line, derived from a Slovenian landrace, grouped with Northern flint lines, whereas the others clustered with Stiff Stalk ones. The landraces and lines fit well to historical data about their origin and introduction of maize in the region.