Ecogeographic analysis of pea collection sites from China to determine potential sites with abiotic stresses

Abstract

Pea (Pisum sativum L.) is grown widely throughout China and has undergone natural selection throughout its agricultural range over 2,000 years. Here we characterize collection site habitats to develop an understanding of the key selection pressures likely to be imposed by each environment to facilitate the investigation of specific adaptation. We characterized 240 collection sites of 529 pea landraces, across 25 provinces and 3 municipalities of China comprising the main pea cropping regions for climatic variables. Multivariate analyses showed that collection sites tended to cluster along geographic and abiotic stress clines. Spring sown sites and winter sown sites were clearly separated into 6 and 7 habitat type clusters respectively. In addition, regions which experience extreme abiotic stresses of frost, drought and high temperature in the reproductive period for pea landraces, were identified as targets for germplasm to be tested for respective tolerances to these stresses.