The Secret of Corn

We have taken wild plants and turned transformed them into useful crops by
domestication.

Humans made them bigger sweeter, more colourful. We have done corn the most. In US
lots of corn is eating. Meat animals eat corn diet

Nothing in nature today looks like corn. Before Columbus, 10k years ago, humans
manipulated wild plants through domestication, we turned plants into crops (wheat,
apples, potatoes). Wild relatives can be found in nature EXCEPT for corn.

Nothing in nature today looks like corn. Before Columbus, 10k years ago, humans
manipulated wild plants through domestication, we turned plants into crops (wheat,
apples, potatoes). Wild relatives can be found in nature EXCEPT for corn.

Nothing in nature today looks like corn. Before Columbus, 10k years ago, humans
manipulated wild plants through domestication, we turned plants into crops (wheat,
apples, potatoes). Wild relatives can be found in nature EXCEPT for corn.
The the it itit bluh abruh bruh bruh easy upload Math is easy af
Where did corn come from?
Scientists thought that the ancestor may be extinct. But George Beetle was studying
a grass from North America called teosinte. The chromosomes in teosinte were nearly
identical to those in corn. They could also produce fertile hybrid offspring (so
they must be closely related), therefore teosinte is the closest ancestor.Many
botanists doubted this, because corn and teosinte are different in many ways:

-Typical teosinte looks very different from corn (base branches a lot, very bushy).
Corn, there is only a single main stock, no branches, except for too short
branches.
-Corn has hundreds of exposed kernals on cob, teosinte ear only has a few kernals,
closed in a fruit case that is extremely hard.

Beetle had to show (after his retirement & nobel prize)how teosinte turned into
modern day corn.
He questioned: how many genes control the differences between corn and teosinte. If
that number were small, it would be easy for early humans to turn teosinte into
corn

He cross bred teosinte with corn. The offspring (F1) generation got one copy of
genes/alleles from corn, and one from teosinte. Then the F1s were crossed with one
another to produce F2.

If only 1 gene differed, 1/4 look exactly like corn, and 1/4 look exactly like
teosinte
If 2 genes differ, 1/16 look exactly like corn, 1/16 look like teosinte
If 3 genes differ, 1/64 are exactly like corn, and 1/64 are exactly like teosinte

If more than 3 genes differed, a lot of plants would be needed, so he grew 50 000.
He found that 1/500 plants looked identical to teosinte, and 1/500 looked like
corn. That meant that changes in 4 or 5 genes were responsible for all the major
differences

All modern corn traces back to one type of Tiosinte: the domestication of corn, and
turning it into a crop occurred 9000 years ago. Corn was proccessed for food.
One scientist used fossils on grind stones, one used charcoal. According to this,
it went back 8700 years ago.
Having a fruit case vs not having a fruit case was controlled by a single gene.
They implanted a corn kernal gene (Naked seed) into teosinte, the teosinte grew
partially naked. When the opposite was done (teosinte gene to corn). the corn
started to grow WITH fruitcase.
Branching gene (big branching) put into corn made corn branch more, vice cerse for
corn to teosinte. According to this, just a few (4 or 5) genes were responsible for
the major differences between corn and teosinte.
These genes were regulatory genes, so they affect other genes (they can turn other
genes on and off, like a conductor in an orchestra). Mutations in just a few
regulatory genes dramatically transformed teosinte into corn.

Early farmers used teosinte like popcorn - popped teosinte (fruit case popped,
kernal was released).