The Past, Present, and Future of Maize Improvement: Domestication, Genomics, and Functional Genomic Routes toward Crop Enhancement

Jie Liu; Alisdair R Fernie; Jianbing Yan

doi:10.1016/j.xplc.2019.100010

The Past, Present, and Future of Maize Improvement: Domestication, Genomics, and Functional Genomic Routes toward Crop Enhancement

Plant Commun. 2019 Nov 27;1(1):100010. doi: 10.1016/j.xplc.2019.100010. eCollection 2020 Jan 13.

Authors

Jie Liu¹, Alisdair R Fernie², Jianbing Yan¹

Affiliations

¹ National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China.
² Department of Molecular Physiology, Max-Planck-Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Am Mühlenberg 1, 14476 Potsdam-Golm, Germany.

Abstract

After being domesticated from teosinte, cultivated maize (Zea mays ssp. mays) spread worldwide and now is one of the most important staple crops. Due to its tremendous phenotypic and genotypic diversity, maize also becomes to be one of the most widely used model plant species for fundamental research, with many important discoveries reported by maize researchers. Here, we provide an overview of the history of maize domestication and key genes controlling major domestication-related traits, review the currently available resources for functional genomics studies in maize, and discuss the functions of most of the maize genes that have been positionally cloned and can be used for crop improvement. Finally, we provide some perspectives on future directions regarding functional genomics research and the breeding of maize and other crops.

Keywords: domestication; functional genomics; genomics; improvement; maize.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

MeSH terms

Crops, Agricultural / genetics
Databases, Genetic
Disease Resistance / genetics
Domestication
Flowers / genetics
Genome, Plant
Genomics / methods*
Plant Breeding / methods*
Plant Proteins / genetics
Zea mays / genetics*

Substances

Plant Proteins