Highland Adaptation in maize and teosinte

Corn originated approximately 10,000 years ago in a hot, dry, low-elevation region of southwest Mexico. While it has since spread globally and today has the greatest global geographic breadth of 16 staple crops, corn continues to perform poorly in the cold and yields are predicted to be negatively affected by climate change. However, farmers in various regions do cultivate corn in cool, wet mountainous regions as high as 12,000 ft above sea level. This project will identify the genetic changes that allowed corn to adapt to high elevations. The investigators will compare agronomic and genetic traits of corn varieties sampled at high elevation with those from nearby lowland regions in field experiments conducted at high, middle, and lowland sites. These experiments will help reveal important genes underlying high-elevation adaptation as well as quantify the repeatability of the genetic changes underlying adaptation. Results from this investigation will inform the development of cold-hard