Genomic landscape of maize domestication and breeding improvement

Abstract

Maize ( Zea mays ssp. mays ) is the most productive crop worldwide now, and it is widely used as food, feed and raw materials for various industrial products. The continuous increase of maize yield is a testament of the success of plant breeding and modern agriculture. During domestication and historical breeding, humans has imposed strong selection on its morphological and physiological traits that benefit ecological adaptation, increase in yield and nutritional value, and harvesting. Recent advance in maize functional genomics studies has greatly deepened and expanded our understanding of the molecular and genetic bases of maize domestication and genetic improvement. In this article, we summarize the key traits and regulatory genes that underlie domestication and post-domestication genetic improvement of maize, and provide a forward outlook at how the knowledge can be harnessed to accelerate future maize breeding.