Hallauer's Tuson: a decade of selection for tropical-to-temperate phenological adaptation in maize.

ABSTRACT: Crop species exhibit an astounding capacity for environmental adaptation, but genetic bottlenecks resulting from intense selection for adaptation and productivity can lead to a genetically vulnerable crop. Improving the genetic resiliency of temperate maize depends upon the use of tropical germplasm, which harbors a rich source of natural allelic diversity. Here, the adaptation process was studied in a tropical maize population subjected to 10 recurrent generations of directional selection for early flowering in a single temperate environment in Iowa, USA. We evaluated the response to this selection across a geographical range spanning from 43.05° (WI) to 18.00° (PR) latitude. The capacity for an all-tropical maize population to become adapted to a temperate environment was revealed in a m

SUBMITTER: Teixeira JE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5179090 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature