Genome-Wide Admixture Mapping Identifies Wild Ancestry-of-Origin Segments in Cultivated Robusta Coffee

Humans have had a major influence on the dissemination of crops beyond their native range, thereby offering new hybridization opportunities. Characterizing admixed genomes with mosaic origins generates valuable insight into the adaptive history of crops and the impact on current varietal diversity. We applied the ELAI tool—an efficient local ancestry inference method based on a two-layer hidden Markov model to track segments of wild origin in cultivated accessions in the case of multiway admixtures. Source populations—which may actually be limited and partially admixed—must be generally specified when using such inference models. We thus developed a framework to identify local ancestry with admixed source populations. Using sequencing data for wild and cultivated Coffea canephora (commonly called Robusta), our approach was found to be highly efficient and accurate on simulated hybrids. Application of the method to assess elite Robusta varieties from Vietnam led to the identification of an accession derived from a likely backcross between two genetic groups from the Congo Basin and the western coastal region of Central Africa. Admixtures resulting from crop hybridization and diffusion could thus lead to the generation of elite high-yielding varieties. Our methods should be widely applicable to gain insight into the role of hybridization during plant and animal evolutionary history.