The recovery of maize (Zea mays L.) chromosome addition lines of oat (Avena sativa L.) from oat x maize crosses enables us to analyze the structure and composition of specific regions, such as knobs, of individual maize chromosomes. A DNA hybridization blot panel of eight individual maize chromosome addition lines revealed that 180-bp repeats found in knobs are present in each of these maize ch...

Mycotoxins – General SCUDAMORE, K.A. and PATEL, S. 2000. Survey for aflatoxins, ochratoxin A, zearalenone and fumonisins in maize imported into the United Kingdom. Food Additives and Contaminants 17: 407–416. Raw maize as received at ports or at major maize mills in the UK were examined for aflatoxins B 1 , B 2 , G 1 and G 2 , ochratoxin A (OA), zearalenone (ZEA) and fumonisins B 1 , B 2 and B ...

The activity of the maize (Zea mays) florigen gene ZEA CENTRORADIALIS8 (ZCN8) is associated with the floral transition in both day-neutral temperate maize and short-day (SD)-requiring tropical maize. We analyzed transcription and chromatin modifications at the ZCN8 locus and its nearly identical paralog ZCN7 during the floral transition. This analysis was performed with day-neutral maize (Zea m...

Plants grown in contaminated areas may accumulate trace metals to a toxic level via their roots and/or leaves. In the present study, we investigated the distribution and sources of Pb and Cd in maize plants (Zea mays L.) grown in a typical zinc smelting impacted area of southwestern China. Results showed that the smelting activities caused significantly elevated concentrations of Pb and Cd in t...

Maize (Zea mays ssp. mays) is genetically diverse, yet it is also morphologically distinct from its wild relatives. These two observations are somewhat contradictory: the first observation is consistent with a large historical population size for maize, but the latter observation is consistent with strong, diversity-limiting selection during maize domestication. In this study, we sampled sequen...

Maize (Zea mays L) is one of the most versatile emerging crops having wider adaptability under varied agro-climatic conditions. Globally, maize is known as queen of cereals because it has the highest genetic yield potential among the cereals. It is cultivated on nearly 150 m ha in about 160 countries having wider diversity of soil, climate, biodiversity and management practices that contributes...

The anatomy of normal maize (Zea mays L.) ears precludes easy access to the kernel pedicel tissue for in vivo assimilate transport experiments. We investigated the possibility of using the Tassel·seed (Ts·51 mutant of maize as a model system for studies of assimilate movement into developing maize kernels. Hypodermic needles (26 gauge, 9.5 mm long) inserted under the pedicel epidermis of intact...

Recent sequencing efforts have targeted the gene-rich regions of the maize (Zea mays L.) genome. We report the release of an improved assembly of maize assembled genomic islands (MAGIs). The 114,173 resulting contigs have been subjected to computational and physical quality assessments. Comparisons to the sequences of maize bacterial artificial chromosomes suggest that at least 97% (160 of 165)...

A 2 yr field study was conducted to determine how a blend of entomopathogens interacted with Bt maize to affect mortality of Diabrotica spp. (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), root injury to maize (Zea maize L.) and yield. The blend of entomopathogens included two entomopathogenic nematodes, Steinernema carpocapsae Weiser and Heterorhabditis bacteriophora Poinar, and one entomopathogenic fungus, Meta...

Selenium is an essential element in human diets but the risk of suboptimal intake increases where food choices are narrow. Here we show that suboptimal dietary intake (i.e. 20-30 µg Se person(-1) d(-1)) is widespread in Malawi, based on a spatial integration of Se concentrations of maize (Zea mays L.) grain and soil surveys for 88 field sites, representing 10 primary soil types and >75% of the ...