Study points to early genetic modification of maize

One thousand year old maize from Tularosa Cave, New Mexico Copyright: Smithsonian photo by Carl C. Hansen

By: Katie Mantell

We encourage you to republish this article online and in print, it’s free under our creative commons attribution license, but please follow some simple guidelines:

You have to credit our authors.
You have to credit SciDev.Net — where possible include our logo with a link back to the original article.
You can simply run the first few lines of the article and then add: “Read the full article on SciDev.Net” containing a link back to the original article.
If you want to also take images published in this story you will need to confirm with the original source if you're licensed to use them.
The easiest way to get the article on your site is to embed the code below.

For more information view our media page and republishing guidelines.

The full article is available here as HTML.

Press Ctrl-C to copy

<div class="article-wrap">
<div id="article-introduction">
<h1>Study points to early genetic modification of maize</h1>
<h4>By: Katie Mantell</h4>
</div>
<br />
<br />

<div id="article-body">
<p><P>A new study suggests that Mexican farmers had significantly altered the genetic makeup of maize through selective breeding as much as 4,000 years ago.</P><br />
<P>An international team of researchers analysed genes from ancient maize, modern maize and teosinte, the wild grassy ancestor of maize. They report in this week’s <EM>Science</EM> that three gene variants common in modern maize also appear frequently in up to 4,000-year-old maize from Mexico.</P><br />
<P>These variants are not as common in teosinte, suggesting that early farmers bred maize selectively for specific traits.</P><br />
<P>In an accompanying article in Science, Nina Federoff from Pennsylvania State University, United States, argues that these early “genetic modifications” may have been so beneficial that they were widely adopted, “perhaps causing something of a prehistoric Green Revolution”.</P><br />
<P>She concludes that “the apparent loss of genetic diversity following the introduction of high-yielding Green Revolution wheat and rice varieties in the 1960s and 1970s, and attending the rapid adoption of superior GM [genetically modified] crops today, is far from a new phenomenon”. </P><br />
<P><a  href="/sci.cfm?redir=http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/302/5648/1206?ijkey=o0Q2SFREeQUYQ&keytype=ref&siteid=sci" target="_blank" onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview('/tracking/external/'+this.href);" rel="noopener noreferrer">Link to research paper in <EM>Science</EM>: Early allelic selection in maize as revealed by ancient DNA</A><BR><a  href="/sci.cfm?redir=http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/302/5648/1158?ijkey=QhXXxzJ9tD7Jk&keytype=ref&siteid=sci" target="_blank" onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview('/tracking/external/'+this.href);" rel="noopener noreferrer">Link to perspectives article in <EM>Science </EM>by Nina Federoff: Prehistoric GM corn</A></P><br />
<P>References: <EM>Science</EM> 302, 1206 (2003) / <EM>Science</EM> 302, 1158 (2003)</P></p>

</div>
<div class="quick-links-wrapper">
<h3>You might also like</h3>
[related-articles]
</div>
<p>This article was originally published on <a href="https://www.scidev.net" target="_blank">SciDev.Net</a>. Read the <a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/news/study-points-to-early-genetic-modification-of-maiz/" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
<script type="text/javascript">
(function(e,t,n,r,i,s,o){e["GoogleAnalyticsObject"]=i;e[i]=e[i]||function(){(e[i].q=e[i].q||[]).push(arguments)},e[i].l=1*new Date;s=t.createElement(n),o=t.getElementsByTagName(n)[0];s.async=1;s.src=r;o.parentNode.insertBefore(s,o)})(window,document,"script","//www.google-analytics.com/ga.js","ga");var _gaq=_gaq||[];var _gaq=_gaq||[];_gaq.push(["_setAccount","UA-3223906-8"],["_trackEvent","article interaction","republished","https://www.scidev.net/global/news/study-points-to-early-genetic-modification-of-maiz/",null,true])
</script>
</div>

A new study suggests that Mexican farmers had significantly altered the genetic makeup of maize through selective breeding as much as 4,000 years ago.

An international team of researchers analysed genes from ancient maize, modern maize and teosinte, the wild grassy ancestor of maize. They report in this week’s Science that three gene variants common in modern maize also appear frequently in up to 4,000-year-old maize from Mexico.

These variants are not as common in teosinte, suggesting that early farmers bred maize selectively for specific traits.

In an accompanying article in Science, Nina Federoff from Pennsylvania State University, United States, argues that these early “genetic modifications” may have been so beneficial that they were widely adopted, “perhaps causing something of a prehistoric Green Revolution”.

She concludes that “the apparent loss of genetic diversity following the introduction of high-yielding Green Revolution wheat and rice varieties in the 1960s and 1970s, and attending the rapid adoption of superior GM [genetically modified] crops today, is far from a new phenomenon”.

Link to research paper in Science: Early allelic selection in maize as revealed by ancient DNA
Link to perspectives article in Science by Nina Federoff: Prehistoric GM corn

References: Science 302, 1206 (2003) / Science 302, 1158 (2003)