Genomic and Morphological Differentiation of Spirit Producing Traditional Landraces Cultivated in Jalisco, Mexico.

Traditional agave spirits such as mezcal or tequila are produced all over Mexico using different species of . Amongst them, is the most popular given its agricultural extension. is a wild species extensively distributed from North to Central America, and previous studies show that it is highly related to the tequila agave . In different regions of Mexico, is cultivated under different types and levels of management, and although traditional producers identify several landraces, for the non-trained eye there are no perceivable differences. After interviews with producers from different localities in Jalisco, Mexico, we sampled plants classified as different landraces, measured several morphological traits, and characterized their genetic differentiation and diversity at the genome-wide level. We included additional samples identified as and to evaluate their relationship with . In contrast with previous studies, our pool of ca 20K high quality unlinked SNPs provided more information and helped us to distinguish different genetic groups that are congruent with the ethnobotanical landraces. We found no evidence to genetically delimitate , and . Our large genome level dataset allows a better understanding of the genetic identity of important traditional and autochthonous landraces.