种田农民

Key biological issues
define our research goals and
directions:

1.Maize is the
pre-eminent model for studying genome evolution and trait variation
due to its unsurpassed natural diversity, genome duplication
history and range of adaptations.

2.Because adaptation is critical to agriculture, maize research
will continue to be a model for understanding the basis of genetic
interactions with the environment.
3.Study of maize heterosis will provide key information about how
genes and alleles interact.
4.Maize will continue to lead in the area of epigenetics.
Imprinting, paramutation and transposons were discovered in maize
and are readily studied with color markers.
5.Maize is positioned as a leading model for developing cellulosic
biofuels for the future.
6.Maize is a model for the study of development and physiology of
unique traits such as C4 photosynthesis, a persistent endosperm,
inflorescence structure, etc.
7.Maize cytogenetics is highly advanced and continues to provide
tools for understanding mechanisms of meiosis and for developing
the potential of chromosome manipulation.

Challenging
unanswered questions in biology best addressed by research on
maize

  Discoveries in the current genomic era of biology have generated
new questions and enabled new approaches to long-standing
questions. The maize community discussed these issues in broad
terms and then focused on the subset of questions that could
clearly be addressed best in maize due to its unique development
and biology, its genetic and evolutionary history and its genome
architecture.

1.How is genomic diversity maintained, and how
does it change during evolution?
2.What is the underlying molecular genetic basis for specific
traits in a species?
3.Can we use maize to predict what genes will regulate plant growth
in related species?
4.Can natural variation provide information to develop novel
breeding traits?
5.What drives genome evolution, and how are these processes
impacted by interaction with the environment?
6.What is the genetic, molecular and physiological basis of hybrid
vigor (heterosis)?
7.What are the impacts of sequence-independent inheritance
(epigenetics) on the growth development and evolution of
maize?
8.How does cytogenetic variation impact genome architecture,
agronomic traits, and plant breeding efforts?