DOI: 10.1126/science.1174276 ISSN:

The Genetic Architecture of Maize Flowering Time

Edward S. Buckler, James B. Holland, Peter J. Bradbury, Charlotte B. Acharya, Patrick J. Brown, Chris Browne, Elhan Ersoz, Sherry Flint-Garcia, Arturo Garcia, Jeffrey C. Glaubitz, Major M. Goodman, Carlos Harjes, Kate Guill, Dallas E. Kroon, Sara Larsson, Nicholas K. Lepak, Huihui Li, Sharon E. Mitchell, Gael Pressoir, Jason A. Peiffer, Marco Oropeza Rosas, Torbert R. Rocheford, M. Cinta Romay, Susan Romero, Stella Salvo, Hector Sanchez Villeda, H. Sofia da Silva, Qi Sun, Feng Tian, Narasimham Upadyayula, Doreen Ware, Heather Yates, Jianming Yu, Zhiwu Zhang, Stephen Kresovich, Michael D. McMullen
  • Multidisciplinary
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Codifying Maize Modifications

Maize, one of our most important crop species, has been the target of genetic investigation and experimentation for more than 100 years. Crossing two inbred lines tends to result in “better” offspring, in a process known as heterosis. Attempts to map the genetic loci that control traits important for farming have been made, but few have been successful (see the Perspective by Mackay ). Buckler et al. (p. 714 ) and McMullen et al. (p. 737 ) produced a genomic map of maize that relates recombination to genome structure. Even tremendous adaptations in very diverse species were produced by numerous, small additive steps. Differences in flowering time in maize among inbred lines were not caused by a few genes with large effects, but by the cumulative effects of numerous quantitative trait loci—each of which has only a small impact on the trait.

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