Madison, Wisconsin
January 14, 2004
The National Science Foundation
has awarded $10 million to a team of researchers, headed by
UW-Madison geneticist John
Doebley, to study the molecular and functional diversity of the
maize (corn) genome. The five-year Plant Genome Research Program
grant will fund research at six institutions: UW-Madison,
Cornell University, University of California-Irvine, North
Carolina State University, University of Missouri-Columbia, and
Cold Spring Harbor Lab. The grant runs through December 2008.
“This is among the largest grants
awarded for plant research,” said Doebley. As principal
investigator of the grant, “Molecular and Functional Diversity
in the Maize Genome,” he will ensure coordination of research
efforts at participating institutions.
“My main focus is
genetic control, the differences between corn and its wild
relative teosinte,” said Doebley. Teosinte is a wild grass
native to Mexico and Central America. Its name means “grain of
the god.” It is corn’s closest relative, with ten pairs of
chromosomes, just like those of maize.
Thousands of years
ago, the first farmers in Mexico collected teosinte, planted it,
harvested a crop, and then planted it again. “The farmers
selected teosinte for traits that made it a better crop,” said
Doebley. “They converted it into corn through selecting
favorable genes and leaving behind unfavorable genes. My part of
the project is focused on finding the genes they selected for. I
want to understand how these genes changed when corn was
domesticated.”
Teosinte ears are tiny compared with
the more familiar corn ear. It has only 10 kernels per ear,
versus the 800 or so found in our corn, said Doebley. And the
corn seed is 25 times larger in modern corn than in teosinte.
Stalks of teosinte are noticeably thinner and bear many more
ears than corn stalks.
Corn is one of the highest volume
crops in the world, annually producing 5.5 billion bushels with
a net worth of $40 billion. It is used in a variety of products
for human consumption and is a major source of feed for beef,
pork and poultry.
Doebley’s research could be important
for several reasons. “If we had in our hands the teosinte genes
the first farmers selected for, we could manipulate them to make
it a better crop, one that was more disease-resistant, needing
fewer pesticides, and that uses less area for agriculture.” he
said.
Other objectives of the grant include
dissecting domestication, agronomic and plant development
genomic regions; developing a database to display the project
data; and enhancing K-12 science education at rural schools near
participating institutions. |