Teosinte Today, Maize Tomorrow

Fig.1. This photo, published in 1919, shows the stages between a simple spike of Euchlaena mexicana and an ear of maize. (Credit: Journal of Agriculture)

Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra, associate professor and section chair of the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of California at Davis, and his team study maize and teosinte evolution. Researchers and post-docs - with backgrounds in plant biology and population biology and integrated genetics and genomics - focus on various research areas, such as genetics and genomics, how human and environmental factors have affected the adaptation and domestication of crops and more.

“Domestication (of the crop) has always struck me as a really exciting story because it’s a case where the evolution of the plant was directed by, or affected by, humans,” Ross-Ibarra said about how he became interested in maize and teosinte research.

"Evil Twin" of Climate Change

Fig.1. A pteropod (sea butterfly) shell placed in seawater with pH and carbonate levels projected for year 2100. The shell dissolved over 45 days. (Credit: David Liittschwager/National Geographic Stock)

A routine survey off the U.S. West Coast conducted by the NOAA Ocean Acidification Program in 2011 found frightening results. More than half of their collected pteropods (sea butterflies) had severely dissolved shells. The ocean’s absorption of human-caused carbon dioxide emission created an acidic environment that has only recently caught the public eye. Now dubbed as “climate change’s evil twin,” ocean acidification represents a serious problem brought about by global warming. As more carbon dioxide dissolves into the ocean, marine organisms and the humans that depend upon them are put at risk.