Maize demonstrates the most substantial growth in repetitive content, a finding attributable to its known TE expansion [ 3- 5].
A recent study in maize demonstrated that the grain width gene on chromosome 2 i.e., GW2 has two orthologous duplicated genes viz., ZmGW2-CHR4 and ZmGW2-CHR5 with similar function of controlling the kernel size and weight even after crop diversification during evolution [ 59].
Wang and Dooner presented a comprehensive comparison of seven inbred lines of maize, demonstrating the remarkable haplotype variation of the bz genomic regions caused predominantly by insertion of LTR-retrotransposons, helitrons, DNA transposons and other new repetitive components [ 17].
The ameiotic1 mutants of maize demonstrate that conducting meiosis is distinguishable from the preceding PMC differentiation events such as cell and nuclear enlargement and a rounded cell shape.
Similarly, it was previously reported that water, lanthanum, and ferrous ions were able to diffuse along the compound middle lamella of the suberized/lignified radial cell walls of the bundle sheath cells within a maize leaf, demonstrating a path for transpirational water movement from the xylem out to the mesophyll and epidermal cells [ 100].
Differently, NLAB identification from the doughs of maize bran C2 demonstrated a representative presence of Gram positive bacteria belonging to Staphylococcus genus, being S. warneri (two strains) and S. pasteuri (one strain) the isolated species.
A recent wide-genomic analysis of PEG-specific changes in maize clearly demonstrated that a large fraction of down-regulated transcripts are represented by protein biosynthesis-related genes [ 66].
More recent research in maize has demonstrated that a mutation in the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene resulted in reduced lignin [ 20].
In fact, the genes ZmOPR1 and ZmOPR2 have demonstrated a transient induction upon Fusarium verticillioides infection in maize [ 118].
A recent study by Hufford et al. demonstrated a remarkably weak genome-wide genetic bottleneck by mordern maize breeding [ 23].
