Maize genetic diversity is largely unstructured by human ethnolinguistic diversity in its center of origin.

Maize genetic diversity in its Americas center of origin shows very little overall population structure, indicating indigenous farmers effectively moved and mixed traditional maize varieties.

• Why it matters: Human movement and cultural differences could shape genetic diversity in domesticated crops, but their magnitude in maize across the Americas has been unquantified.
• What they did: Using genotyping and passport data from ~2,000 traditional maize varieties, >500 human whole-genome sequences from Mexico, and indigenous linguistic maps, the study tested links between maize diversity, human genetics, and language using correlations, linear models, and selection scans.
• The result: While maize principal components correlate with human genetic diversity, linear modeling suggests little extra impact of human population structure beyond shared geography; language shows weak genome-wide effects overall but loci linked to specific languages.

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