Phenotypically wild barley shows evidence of introgression from cultivated barley

Abstract

Plant conservation depends on preserving genetic diversity, which is essential for long-term adaptation. Multiple studies have reported genetic evidence of crop-to-wild introgression in phenotypically wild accessions of wild barley (Hordeum vulgare ssp. spontaneum). This dataset documents genomic evidence of introgression between cultivated barley and wild barley using 318 accessions from the Wild Barley Diversity Collection (WBDC).

The data include SNP genotype datasets, phased and imputed variant calls, genetic maps, and accession metadata used to perform local ancestry inference between WBDC accessions and cultivated barley. These analyses identify genomic regions showing evidence of introgression and assess whether introgressed segments overlap genes associated with domestication and crop improvement. The dataset further enables evaluation of the extent, genomic distribution, and historical timing of introgression using runs of identity by state and ancestry inference.

Analyses of these data reveal that nearly 16% (48 of 318) of WBDC accessions show evidence of introgression from cultivated barley, with up to 16.6% of the genome introgressed in some accessions. All accessions identified as introgressed based on domestication-related phenotypes show clear genetic evidence of introgression. Patterns of ancestry and run length suggest that most introgression events are not recent, indicating a long history of genetic exchange between wild and cultivated barley.

These data are released to support transparency, reproducibility, and reuse of the analyses presented in the associated manuscript, and to provide a resource for future studies of crop-wild gene flow, barley evolution, and conservation genetics.