JOHN DOEBLEY
The natural ancestor of corn, a wild grass called teosinte, would have been much more difficult to eat than the crop we know and love today. For one thing, its kernels are encased by a hard outer shell inedible by humans. That hurdle, however, may not have been difficult for ancient plant breeders to overcome. According to a study published today (July 13) in Genetics, just a single DNA base substitution gave corn its soft, fibrous exterior.
“Humans completely reshaped the ancestor of corn, effectively turning the cob inside out. Our results show that a small genetic change has had a big effect on this remarkable transformation,” study coauthor John Doebley, a plant geneticist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, said in a statement. Studies done ...
