A Century of Guayule: Comprehensive Genetic Characterization of the Guayule (Parthenium argentatum A. Gray) USDA Germplasm Collection

The fragility of a single-source, geographically concentrated supply of natural rubber, a critical material of the modern economy, has brought guayule (Parthenium argentatum A. Gray) to the forefront as an alternative source of natural rubber. The improvement of guayule for commercial-scale production has been limited by the lack of genomic tools and well-characterized genetic resources required for genomics-assisted breeding. To address this issue, we developed nearly 50,000 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genetic markers and genotyped 69 accessions of guayule and its sister taxa mariola (Parthenium incanum Kunth), representing the entire available NALPGRU germplasm collection. We identified multiple interspecific hybrid accessions previously considered guayule, including six guayule-mariola hybrids and non-mariola interspecific hybrid accessions AZ-2 and AZ-3, two commonly used high-yielding cultivars. We dissected genetic diversity within the collection to identify a highly diverse subset of guayule accessions, and showed that wild guayule stands in Big Bend National Park, Texas, USA have the potential to provide hitherto untapped guayule genetic diversity. Together, these results provide the most thorough genetic characterization of guayule germplasm to date and lay the foundation for rapid genetic improvement of commercial guayule germplasm.\n\nKey Results O_LISix guayule accessions are guayule-mariola hybrids\nC_LIO_LIGuayule collections from Big Bend National Park contain novel guayule genotypes not present in collections from Mexico\nC_LIO_LICommonly cultivated accessions AZ2 and AZ3 contain introgressions from other Parthenium species\nC_LIO_LIThe triploid accessions 11591, 11646, N576, N565, N565II, and RICHARDSON are generally indistinguishable from each other with respect to genetic background and likely represent the 4265-I source genotype (Johnson, 1950)\nC_LIO_LIOpen pollinated and purposefully outcrossed tetraploid selections derived from 4265-I incorporate further genetic diversity and form distinct genotypes\nC_LI