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How corn came to be

(PhysOrg.com) -- Corn, as we know it, didn’t always exist. A Brigham Young University biology professor published a new study that identified the functions of a gene that may have helped transform a...

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Jumping gene enabled key step in corn domestication

Corn split off from its closest relative teosinte, a wild Mexican grass, about 10,000 years ago thanks to the breeding efforts of early Mexican farmers. Today it's hard to tell that the two plants were...

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Greenhouse 'time machine' sheds light on corn domestication

A grass called teosinte is thought to be the ancestor of corn, but it doesn't look much like corn at all. Smithsonian scientists were surprised to find that teosinte planted in growth chambers under...

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Tiny genetic tweak unlocked corn kernels during domestication

If not for a single genetic mutation, each kernel on a juicy corn cob would be trapped inside a inedible casing as tough as a walnut shell. The mutation switches one amino acid for another at a...

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Study shows how a kernel got naked and corn became king

Ten thousand years ago, a golden grain got naked, brought people together and grew to become one of the top agricultural commodities on the planet.

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