US-China joint study challenges theory on the origins of modern corn
- Study suggests the crop may not have one common ancestor as was previously believed
- Genetic evidence suggests a second wild plant from Mexico may have helped it to become adopted as a staple food source across the Americas
Scientists have uncovered a new model for the origins of modern corn, challenging the commonly accepted idea that it was domesticated from a single wild relative in Mexico.
After examining samples from around the world, the team found that genetic contributions from a second wild plant about 5,000 years ago may have been key to the adoption of maize as a staple grain in Mesoamerica.
The paper, led by researchers at Huazhong Agricultural University in Wuhan and the University of California, Davis, was published in the journal Science on Thursday.
Despite being one of the most important staple crops around the world, the exact origins of corn have been contested by scientists.
The origins of modern maize had led to “more than 100 years of debate between archaeologists, geneticists and botanists”, Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra, a professor of evolution and ecology at University of California, Davis, said.
He said the most commonly accepted model, based on genetic analysis done at the start of the century, was that corn was domesticated in a singular event in a specific part of Mexico.