Maize: It’s in the Genes

Producing high-yield maize crops using sustainable methods is challenging, as varieties need to be developed quickly and efficiently to combat the changing climate and the increasing world demand for food.

Scientists at theInternational Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, the China Agricultural University,and the USDA Agricultureal Research Service have reviewed state-of-the-art association mapping ofmaize, and the factors that will allow for the maximum impact of this new tool in gene discovery studies and practical maizeimprovement programs.

“Association mapping remains complementary to, rather than a replacement for, linkage mapping and other gene identification and validation techniques. The integration of linkage mapping and association mapping approaches offers substantial opportunity to resolve the individual constraints of each approach while synergizing their respective strengths,” says Jianbing Yan, one of the study’s authors.

Yan and other researchers have compiled and accounted for all known published literature on the topic and can illustrate the conditions that would promote association mapping and allow improved corn varieties to efficiently reach farmers across the globe. Association mapping can identify the genes needed to increase crop yields without the need to increase irrigation or the use of fungicides.

Research is ongoing at these institutions to apply the results of other challenges food production faces like improved nutrition, grain yield, drought tolerance, and resistance to toxic fungal pathogens. The full review paper appears in the March-April 2011 issue of Crop Science. The study was funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the National Hitech Research and Development Program of China.

The full article is available for no charge for 30 days following the date of this summary. View the abstract at www.crops.org/publications/cs/abstracts/51/2/433.

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