Feature article |
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Authors: | Mary W Eubanks |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Biology, Duke University, 27708-0338 Durham, NC, USA |
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Abstract: | Domesticated maize emerged from human selection, exploitation, and cultivation of natural recombinants between two wild grasses
that had novel characteristics desired by humans for food. Crossing experiments reconstructing prototypes of ancient archaeological
specimens demonstrate how the simple flowering spike of the wild relatives of maize was transformed into the prolific grain-bearing
ear within a few generations of intergenomic recombination between teosinte andTripsacum. The high degree of morphological similarities of segregating intercross progeny to archaeological specimens from Tehuacán,
Oaxaca, and Tamaulipas provides strong support for this evolutionary scenario. Comparative genomic analysis of maize, teosinte,
andTripsacum confirms that maize has inherited unique polymorphisms from aTripsacum ancestor and other unique polymorphisms from a teosinte progenitor. This supports the hypothesis thatTripsacum introgression provided the mutagenic action for the transformation of the teosinte spike into the maize ear. This model for
the origin of maize explains its sudden appearance, rapid evolutionary trajectory, and genesis of its spectacular biodiversity. |
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Keywords: | evolution of maize Tripsacum teosinte archaeological maize |
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