Plant Genome Outreach to Native Americans

Home

Goals

Participants

Maize Segregation Distortion

Browse Data

Germplasm Conservation

Traditional Uses of Plants

The best of both worlds: cross pollination

Nathan Etsitty¹ , Von Mark Cruz², Candice Gardner^2&3, Matt Lively³, David Losure³, Barbara Bingaman³, Lisa Burke³, Jeff Carstens³, Irv Larsen³, Cindy Clark³, and Carolyn Lawrence^2,3,&4

1. Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ
2. Department of Agronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, IA
3. USDA-ARS
4. Department of Development Genetics & Cell Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA

Cross pollination is a breeding tool that was used by the early Native Americans to develop wild teosinte into corn, a food crop which feeds not only the native peoples but is used by the whole population in today's society as a food and through its industrial uses (like producing ethanol). Cross pollination can yield better plants, or it can yield poorer plants. This difference is due to the effects of combining the two parents' characteristics. Whether a particular hybrid is successful depends mainly upon the demand for the products that can be made from the hybrid. The process used to make crosses can be open (by detassling females and planting males and females intermittently) or by controlled hand pollination. Hand pollination involves bagging the plants' tassels and shoots (young ears), and crossing only specific individual plants of interest. At the North Central Regional Plant Introduction Station, populations of maize collected from the American Southwest are conserved and are propagated by non-reciprocal hand pollination. By finding molecular markers for identifying the Abnormal 10 chromosome of maize, its presence can be identified in plant populations. Subsequently, the markers can be used to test whether it affects chromosome segregation and the genetic profiles of the populations. If its presence does affect segregation ratios, a method different than simple non-reciprocal crossing must be developed.