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Review
. 2015 Mar 25:4:e05861.
doi: 10.7554/eLife.05861.

Genetic, evolutionary and plant breeding insights from the domestication of maize

Sarah Hake  1 , Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra  2
Affiliations
Review

Genetic, evolutionary and plant breeding insights from the domestication of maize

Sarah Hake et al. Elife. .

Abstract

The natural history of maize began nine thousand years ago when Mexican farmers started to collect the seeds of the wild grass, teosinte. Invaluable as a food source, maize permeated Mexican culture and religion. Its domestication eventually led to its adoption as a model organism, aided in large part by its large chromosomes, ease of pollination and growing agricultural importance. Genome comparisons between varieties of maize, teosinte and other grasses are beginning to identify the genes responsible for the domestication of modern maize and are also providing ideas for the breeding of more hardy varieties.

Keywords: domestication; evolutionary biology; genomics; maize; plant biology; teosinte; the natural history of model organisms.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Teosinte compared to maize.
(A) A teosinte female inflorescence (left), which arises as a secondary branch from tillers, and tassel (right). (B) An ear (left) and tassel (right) of maize. Size bar in A and B is 10 cm. (C) Teosinte kernel (left) and maize kernel (right). The teosinte kernel is hidden by hardened glumes (see Glossary). The maize kernel is exposed and reveals the endosperm (En) and embryo (Em). The embryo is surrounded by the scutellum (Sc), the nutritive tissue of the cotyledon. (D) A comparison of teosinte on the left, maize on the right and the F1 of maize and teosinte in the middle. Image credits: (D) John Doebley, Department of Genetics, University of Wisconsin–Madison; all other images, Sarah Hake. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.05861.002
Figure 2.
Figure 2.. Geographic breadth of the world's 16 staple crops, expressed in percent of 5′ grid cells in which each crop is cultivated.
Data are from (Monfreda et al., 2008), downloaded from earthstat.org. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.05861.004
Figure 3.
Figure 3.. Maize reproduction.
(A) Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image of a tassel primordium. (B) SEM of an ear primordium. (C) A germinated maize seedling. Image credits: Sarah Hake. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.05861.005
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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