title: Molecular and functional diversity of maize.
abstract: Over the past 10,000 years, man has used the rich genetic diversity of the maize genome as the raw material for domestication and subsequent crop improvement. Recent research efforts have made tremendous strides toward characterizing this diversity: structural diversity appears to be largely mediated by helitron transposable elements, patterns of diversity are yielding insights into the number and type of genes involved in maize domestication and improvement, and functional diversity experiments are leading to allele mining for future crop improvement. The development of genome sequence and germplasm resources are likely to further accelerate this progress.
authors.affiliation: USDA-ARS; Department of Plant Breeding & Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA. esb33@cornell.edu
authors.forename: Edward S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Buckler
authors.forename: Brandon S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Gaut
authors.forename: Michael D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: McMullen
mesh_terms: D014644:Genetic Variation; D040641:Quantitative Trait Loci; D012641:Selection, Genetic; D003313:Zea mays / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology