Corn's hidden growth points hold clues to better crops
Bartlett M, Leiboff S, Richardson AE
Crop Improvement
The corn stalk in your garden or the field you drive past hides a tiny, tucked-away growth tip that decides how many ears, leaves, and kernels the plant will ever produce.
Corn has been a favorite plant for scientists to study for over 150 years, and it's taught us huge things, like the existence of 'jumping genes' that move around in DNA and a gene called KNOTTED1 that proved plants and animals share some of the same genetic toolkit. This paper reviews how researchers figure out corn's growth plan by tracking its shape, timing, and the spatial arrangement of its parts, even though the buds that control that growth are buried and hard to reach. Understanding this hidden architecture helps breeders build corn that yields more and holds up better to stress.
Key Findings
Maize is grown on more than 200 million hectares annually worldwide for food, feed, and biofuel.
Maize research contributed foundational discoveries including transposons ('jumping genes') and KNOTTED1, the first homeobox gene identified in plants.
The review frames maize developmental biology around three components, morphology, time, and space, and highlights emerging techniques for studying inaccessible meristems and developing organs.
chevron_right Technical Summary
This review traces 150 years of maize research, from the discovery of 'jumping genes' to the first plant homeobox gene, and explains how scientists study the hidden, hard-to-reach growth points that shape crop yield and resilience.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Maize Developmental Biology: Fundamental Discoveries Unlocking Innovation.
Maize (Zea mays) is a cornerstone of agriculture and global genetics research. Every year more than 200 million hectares of maize are grown worldwide for human and animal consumption, and biofuel a...
open_in_new Read full abstractAbstract copyright held by the original publisher.
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