The origin of Cornbelt maize: the isozyme evidence

Historical records show that the Midwestern dent corns of the United States originated from hybridization of two landraces, Northern Flint and Southern Dent. We examined the origin of Southern and Midwestern Dents by means of isozyme electrophoresis. Isozyme genotypes were determined for 23 loci in...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Economic botany 1988-01, Vol.42 (1), p.120-131
Main Authors: Doebley, J, Wendel, J.D, Smith, J.S.C, Stuber, C.W, Goodman, M.M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agronomy. Soil science and plant productions
Alleles
AMERICA DEL NORTE
AMERIQUE DU NORD
Biological and medical sciences
Corn
Crop science
evolution
Evolutionary genetics
Flint
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Gene frequency
Generalities
Generalities. Genetics. Plant material
Genetic variation
Genetics and breeding of economic plants
Hybridity
INBRED LINES
Inbred strains
Inbreeding
ISOENZIMAS
ISOENZYME
ISOENZYMES
LIGNEE CONSANGUINE
LINEAS CONSANGUINEAS
NORTH AMERICA
Plant material
ZEA MAYS
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Historical records show that the Midwestern dent corns of the United States originated from hybridization of two landraces, Northern Flint and Southern Dent. We examined the origin of Southern and Midwestern Dents by means of isozyme electrophoresis. Isozyme genotypes were determined for 23 loci in 12 plants each of 32 accessions of Southern Dent. Previously published isozyme data for maize landraces of Mexico and North America and for U.S. Midwestern Dents were included for comparative purposes. The data show that Northern Flint and Southern Dent are among the isozymically most divergent maize landraces. Nei's genetic identities between populations of these two landraces are very low for conspecific populations (ca. 0.80). Southern Dent of the southeastern U.S. appears closely related to similar dent corns of southern Mexico, supporting a previously published hypothesis that U.S. Southern Dent is largely derived from the dent corns of southern Mexico. The Midwestern Dents, which resulted from crosses of Southern Dent and Northern Flint, are much more like Southern Dent than Northern Flint in their isozyme profile. Similarly, public inbreds show greater affinity to Southern Dent with the exception of sweet corn lines, which resemble Northern Flint in their isozyme allele frequencies. North American public inbreds do not contain appreciable isozymic variation beyond that found in Northern Flint and Southern Dent.
ISSN:0013-0001
1874-9364
DOI:10.1007/BF02859042