Physical geography, isolation by distance and environmental variables shape genomic variation of wild barley (Hordeum vulgare L. ssp. spontaneum in the Southern Levant

Determining the extent of genetic variation that reflects local adaptation in crop wild relatives is of interest to discovering useful genetic diversity for plant breeding. We investigated the association of genomic variation with geographical and environmental factors in wild barley (Hordeum vulgare L. ssp. spontaneum) populations of the Southern Levant using genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) of 244 accessions of the Barley1K+ collection. Inference of population structure resulted in four genetic clusters that corresponded to eco-geographical habitats and a significant association of lower gene flow rates with geographical barriers, e.g. the Judaean Mountains and the Sea of Galilee. Redundancy analysis (RDA) revealed that spatial autocorrelation explained 45% and environmental variables explained 15% of total genomic variation. Only 4.5% of genomic variation was exclusively attributed to environmental variation if the component confounded with spatial autocorrelation was excluded. A synthetic environmental variable combining latitude, solar radiation, and accumulated precipitation explained the highest proportion of genomic variation (3.9%). After correcting for population structure, soil water capacity was the most important environmental variable explaining 1.18% of genomic variation. Genome scans with outlier analysis and genome-environment association studies were conducted to identify signatures of adaptation. RDA and outlier methods jointly detected selection signatures in the pericentromeric regions of chromosome 3H, 4H, and 5H, but they mostly disappeared after correction for population structure. In conclusion, adaptation to the highly diverse environments of the Southern Levant over short geographical ranges has a small effect on the genomic diversity of wild barley highlighting the importance of non-selective forces in genetic differentiation.