George H. Shull, while working as a corn geneticist at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory from 1904 to 1915, observed that when two different pure-bred lines of corn were crossbred the resulting progeny exhibited physical traits superior to those of the parents (Glass, 2010). Shull described the offspring of pure-bred crosses as having increased heartiness, size, fruitfulness, speed of developme...

Published in Agron. J. 104:158–164 (2012) Posted online 12 Dec 2011 doi:10.2134/agronj2011.0213 Copyright © 2012 by the American Society of Agronomy, 5585 Guilford Road, Madison, WI 53711. All rights reserved. No part of this periodical may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrie...

Maize, Zea mays L., is an economically important crop grown throughout the world. Corn rootworm, Diabrotica spp. (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), larvae constitute a significant economic threat to maize production in the United States, where yield losses and management costs associated with corn rootworm species exceed $1 billion annually. Furthermore, the introduction of the western corn rootworm,...

Grains from 14 corn inbreds and 4 single cross hybrids were inoculated with 3 isolates of Gibberella zeae to determine their inhibition of zearalenone production. The corn hybrids: Pa762 x A632 (50 mg/kg zearalenone production), A619 x A632 (17 mg/kg zearalenone production), H95 x Mo17 (132 mg/kg zearalenone production), and B73 x MO17 (33 mg/kg zearalenone production) appear to have less resis...

ABSTRACT Fumonisin is a group of homologous mycotoxins produced by several species of Fusarium. Fumonisin has been associated with Fusarium ear and kernel rot of corn (Zea mays) and several toxicoses of animals and humans. Corn inbreds with a high level of resistance to fumonisin production and accumulation in grain have not been identified. The objective of this study was to evaluate a genetic...

Introduction: The corn-breeding program at NDSU has been developing early maturing (6595RM) corn since 1933. We have created ‘EarlyGEM’, a continuous effort to incorporate GEM germplasm into the northern U.S. Corn Belt. Our program is one of the few public programs that can still offer a strong emphasis on germplasm improvement, inbred line development, and training of applied plant breeders. T...

A major assumption of the high-dose/refuge strategy proposed for insect resistance management strategies for transgenic crop plants that express toxins from Bacillus thuringiensis is that resistance traits that evolve in pest species will be recessive. The inheritance of Cry1F resistance and larval survival on commercially available Cry1F corn hybrids were determined in a laboratory-selected st...

Corn (Zea mays L.) hybrid selection is one of the most important agricultural management decisions made by farmers. Both genetic yield potential and adaptation to local environment vary widely across corn hybrids, have a direct impact on input costs. This study compared performance hybrids with contrasting comparative relative maturity (CRM, referring their growth cycle), evaluate differences i...

Transgenic plants have been widely adopted by growers to manage the western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte, in field corn. Because of reduced efficacy in some Nebraska fields after repeated use of Cry3Bb1-expressing hybrids, single plant bioassays were conducted in 2012 and 2013 to characterize the susceptibility of western corn rootworm populations to the rootworm-active...