Feral populations of domesticated crops can establish through two nonmutually exclusive pathways: hybridization with native relatives and recruitment of and recombination between known cultivars. The extent and relative importance of these pathways is not known, especially for woody fruit crops. Here, we examined the evolutionary origins of feral populations of Malus domestica (domestic apple) in southern Canada using a population genetic analysis. We characterized genotypes of 578 putative feral apple trees and evaluated them in relation to genotypes of 156 commercial cultivars, 28 non‐native, ornamental crabapples and 47 native Malus coronaria trees using 14 microsatellite markers. No feral trees were genetic admixtures between domestic and native Malus ; however, a minority of trees were admixed with introduced ornamental Malus . Feral trees and commercial cultivars both occurred in two major genetic groups and seven subgroups distributed throughout all commercial growing regions. A total of 42 cultivars, both heritage and currently grown, occurred in probable parental pairs for feral trees, with nine heritage varieties accounting for 72% of parental assignments. We conclude that feral apples in southern Canada are not products of hybridization with native M. coronaria but we cannot exclude ornamental apple species as contributing to the naturalization process. Nonhybrid feral domestic apples have multiple origins, with a prominent signature of early heritage cultivars. These lineages have spread and coexist throughout Ontario, rather than being derived strictly from local sources.

中文翻译：

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加拿大南部野生苹果的起源和进化史。

驯化作物的野生种群可以通过两个互斥的途径建立：与本地亲缘种杂交以及已知品种的募集和重组。这些途径的程度和相对重要性尚不清楚，尤其是对于木本水果作物而言。在这里，我们使用种群遗传分析研究了加拿大南部的家蝇（家养苹果）野生种群的进化起源。我们对578种假定的野生苹果树的基因型进行了表征，并使用14种微卫星标记对它们与156个商业品种，28种非本地观赏性海棠和47种当地海棠的基因型进行了评估。没有野生树是家养和本地马鲁斯之间的遗传混合物; 但是，少数树木与引入的观赏海棠混合。野性树和商业品种都出现在两个主要的基因组和七个亚组中，分布在所有商业生长地区。可能有父母对的野生木共有42个既有遗传品种又有当前栽培品种，其中9个遗传品种占亲本分配的72％。我们得出的结论是，加拿大南部的野生苹果不是与当地冠状支原体杂交的产物。但是我们不能排除观赏性苹果物种对归化过程的贡献。非杂种野生苹果有多个起源，并具有早期传承品种的显着特征。这些血统已经扩散并共存于整个安大略省，而不是严格地从本地来源获得。