During 1949-1950 in Italy begun a formal investigation to characterize
maize (Zea mays L.) cultivation. In 1954, started a project for the
sampling of all Italian maize landraces; this work ended with the
collection of 562 different accessions collected in all regions with the
exception of Valle d’Aosta, even if historical cultivation of maize in this
Region is well documented.
In Italy maize landraces have been extensively grown until the mid of the
XX century when the cultivation of hybrid took place due to their
significant agronomic performances. Despite that, being Valle d’Aosta a
mountain region where intensive maize cultivation never started, it was
possible to preserve the presence of some landraces. These local materials,
which are still cultivated, mainly at domestic level, have high importance
from a genetic and historical point of view. Recently, 5 maize landraces
from Valle d’Aosta and 2 landraces from the adjacent Canavese (Piedmont)
have been collected and subjected to historic, morphologic and genetic
characterization. These landraces were named after the sampling location as
it follows: Arnad, Arnad-Crest, Chatillon, Entrebin, Perloz, Bianco
Canavese, and Rostrato Canavese.
Firstly, on these 6 varieties the historic characterization has been
carried out. Information and photographs have been searched in local
archives and this was crucial to prove their long presence in all the
sampling sites under study. From this historic reconstruction, the variety
Entrebin resulted as the one that is better historically characterized.
To study the variability and differentiation of landraces from Valle
d’Aosta, the genetic characterization was performed by the means of 10 SSR
markers tested on 20 samples from each landrace. This study highlighted a
significant genetic variability among the landraces and, especially, a good
level of differentiation between the accessions under investigation. This
last result may be explained by the long reproductive isolation experienced
by these materials. Complete morphological characterization is actually
ongoing. Preliminary morphological observations revealed that these
landraces have, generally, flint kernels with the exception of Bianco
Canavese (dent) whose color is variable from white (Bianco Canavese) to
dark red (Chatillon). Arnad landrace showed 8 kernel rows, probably being
an Eight-rowed Flint while the others presented more rows, like many
Derived Races. Interestingly, Perloz and Rostrato Canavese showed kernels
with an apical beak which was more pronounced in the latter. This suggest
that these two landraces belong to the “Rostrata” group, which is common in
mountain areas.
The present work confirms the importance of mountain areas in conserving
biodiversity and increases the rich Italian maize germplasm with materials
well adapted to marginal areas. Such new genetic variability may be used to
breed new materials for a more resilient agriculture
