Data from: Maize diversity associated to social origin and environmental variation in southern Mexico

While prevailing theories of crop evolution suggest that crop diversity
and cultural diversity should be linked, empirical evidence for such a
link remains inconclusive. In particular, few studies have investigated
such patterns on a local scale. Here, we address this issue by examining
the determinants of maize diversity in a local region of high cultural and
biological richness in Southern Mexico. We collected maize samples from
villages at low and middle elevations in two adjacent municipalities of
differing ethnicity: Mixtec or Chatino. Although morphological traits show
few patterns of population structure, we see clear genetic differentiation
among villages, with municipality explaining a larger proportion of the
differentiation than altitude. Consistent with an important role of social
origin in patterning seed exchange, metapopulation model-based estimates
of differentiation match the genetic data within village and ethnically
distinct municipalities, but underestimate differentiation when all four
villages are taken together. Our research provides insights about the
importance of social origin in structuring maize diversity at the local
scale.