Maize has for many decades been both one of the most important crops worldwide and one
of the primary genetic model organisms. More recently, maize breeding has been impacted …

There is a need to accelerate crop improvement by introducing alleles conferring host plant
resistance, abiotic stress adaptation, and high yield potential. Elite cultivars, landraces and …

Since the development of single-hybrid maize breeding programs in the first half of the
twentieth century, maize yields have increased over sevenfold, and much of that increase …

Single-cross maize hybrids display superior heterosis and are produced from crossing two
parental inbred lines belonging to genetically different heterotic groups. Here we assembled …

We report on a whole‐genome draft sequence of rye (Secale cereale L.). Rye is a diploid
Triticeae species closely related to wheat and barley, and an important crop for food and …

The diversity of maize (Zea mays) is the backbone of modern heterotic patterns and hybrid
breeding. Historically, US farmers exploited this variability to establish today's highly …

Global trade has considerably accelerated biological invasions. The annual tropical
teosintes, the closest wild relatives of maize, were recently reported as new agricultural …

Genetic variation is of crucial importance for crop improvement. Landraces are valuable
sources of diversity, but for quantitative traits efficient strategies for their targeted utilization …

Maize (Zea mays ssp. mays) is an agronomically important crop and also a classical genetic
model for studying the regulation of plant architecture formation, which is a critical …

Plant roots are colonized by microorganisms from the surrounding soil that belong to
different kingdoms and form a multikingdom microbial community called the root microbiota …