About Zea mays

Zea mays (maize) has the highest world-wide production of all grain crops, yielding 875 million tonnes in 2012. Although a food staple in many regions of the world, most is used for animal feed and ethanol fuel. Maize was domesticated from wild teosinte in Central America and its cultivation spread throughout the Americas by Pre-Columbian civilisations. In addition to its economic value, maize is an important model organism for studies in plant genetics, physiology, and development. It has a large genome of of about 2.4 gigabases with a haploid chromosome number of 10 (Schnable et al., 2009; Zhang et al., 2009). Maize is distinguished from other grasses in that its genome arose from an ancient tetraploidy event unique to its lineage.

Taxonomy ID 4577

Data source Gramene

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