Germplasm improvement is essential for maize breeding. Currently, intra-heterotic-group crossing is the major method for germplasm improvement, while inter-heterotic-group crossing is also used in breeding but not in a systematic way. In this study,...
Maize is one of the leading food crops and its kernel is rich in starch, lipids, protein and other energy substances. In addition, maize kernels also contain many trace elements that are potentially beneficial to human health, such as vitamins, miner...
Investment in modern agricultural practices (MAPs) is crucial for improving crop productivity and household food availability in developing countries like Tanzania, where agriculture forms the backbone of the economy. This study assesses the impact o...
This Special Issue “Maize Cultivation and Improvement” gathers eight high-quality contributions that collectively reflect the contemporary landscape of maize research [...]
Production and use of doubled haploids (DH) is becoming an essential part of maize breeding programs worldwide as DH lines offer several advantages in line development and evaluation. One of the critical steps in maize DH line production is doubling...
Genetic adaptation of maize to the increasingly unpredictable climatic conditions is an essential prerequisite for achievement of food security and sustainable development goals in sub-Saharan Africa. The landraces of maize; which have not served as...
Maize is the most important and strategic crop in Mexico, however, this sector suffers from low productivity. Among the various strategies to improve yield by hectare, improved maize seeds play an important role. In this context, adoption studies in...
Maize cultivation performance, including the efficiency of the input and output of maize, which reflect the allocation and utilization of resources in the process of maize cultivation, is crucial for evaluating and improving maize cultivation. This p...
Obtaining the number of plants is the key to evaluating the effect of maize mechanical sowing, and is also a reference for subsequent statistics on the number of missing seedlings. When the existing model is used for plant number detection, the recog...
The China–Tanzania Village-based Learning Center for Poverty Reduction project aims to demonstrate China’s experience in poverty reduction through developing smallholder agriculture at the village level, and through the promotion of impro...
This study assesses improved maize variety (IMV) adoption, as well as yield effects among smallholder farmers in Benue State, Nigeria, having implications for sustainable crop management and resource-use efficiency. Benue state is commonly known as t...
Elucidating the genetic basis of starch pasting and gelatinization properties is crucial for enhancing the quality of maize and its utility as feed and industrial raw material. In maize, ZmSBE genes encode important starch branching enzymes in the st...
To improve the pharmacological properties of maize ribosome-inactivating protein (maize RIP) for targeting HIV-infected cells, the previously engineered TAT-fused active form of maize RIP (MOD) was further engineered for cysteine-directed PEGylation....
A long-term study was carried out in the Zidyana Extension Planning Area (EPA), Malawi and in the Zimuto Communal Area, Zimbabwe, to evaluate the effect of different conservation agriculture (CA) systems on crop productivity, soil quality and economi...
Maize (Zea mays L.) is a globally important crop, but its sensitivity to cold stress leads to substantial yield losses in temperate zones, where low temperatures, particularly below 10 °C, critically constrain cultivation in high-altitude and hig...
Owing to global warming, continuously increasing the grain yield of rainfed maize is challenging on the Loess Plateau in China. Plastic film mulching has been extensively utilized in dryland agriculture on the Loess Plateau. However, higher topsoil t...
Quality protein maize (QPM) varieties are biofortified, or nutritionally improved, to have higher lysine and tryptophan levels to increase quality protein intakes particularly among young children. This study assesses adequacy of children’s pro...
As efforts to close crop production yield gaps increase, the need has emerged to identify cost-effective strategies to reduce yield losses through soil improvement. Maize (Zea mays L.) production in coastal saline soil is limited by high salinity and...
Lodging is a key factor affecting maize yield and harvestability. This study utilized Reid population baselines and their improved lines as female parents and No-Reid population baselines and their improved lines as male parents to form 48 incomplete...
Maize (Zea mays L.) is a major cereal used for food, feed, and industrial applications. This study assessed genetic diversity and biochemical variability among 49 maize genotypes to identify promising material for grain quality improvement. RAPD prof...
Nitrogen use efficiency remains the primary bottleneck for sustainable maize production. This study elucidates the functional mechanisms of the amino acid transporter ZmAAP1 in nitrogen absorption and stress resilience. Through systematic evolutionar...
To clarify the effects of pond excavation and field elevation combined with biochar application on soil improvement and maize growth in cold-soaked fields in northern China, a two-year field experiment was conducted using maize as the test crop under...
The enhancement of the nutritional composition of maize grains could be achieved by the introduction of a mutation with a heightened lysine content. To obtain double-recessive mutant lines for the o16 and wx genes, a molecular-marker-assisted selecti...
Recent advances in maize doubled haploid (DH) technology have enabled the development of large numbers of DH lines quickly and efficiently. However, testing all possible hybrid crosses among DH lines is a challenge. Phenotyping haploid progenitors cr...
Unavailability of balanced nutrients in nutrient-deficient soils is the key reason in reduced yields of spring maize. After application to soil, most of the phosphorus (80–90%) is lost in the environment because of runoff losses and chemically...
Maize (Zea mays) seed is deficient in protein and lysine content. Many studies have been made to improve the nutritional quality of maize seeds. Previously, we reported the role of a natural lysine-rich protein gene SBgLR in increasing protein and ly...
Participatory selection—exploiting specific adaptation traits to target environments—helps to guarantees yield stability in a changing climate, in particular under low-input or organic production. The purpose of the present study was to i...
Maize yields can be improved through many individual technologies and management practices, but the full realization of potential benefits is generally understood to require integrated use of complementary practices. We employed two years of survey d...
The sequence of the preceding crops in a no-tillage farming system, could interact with the integrated use of mineral and organic nitrogen (N) sources in a way that improves the growth and productivity of the terminal maize crop, meanwhile, enhancing...
Climate change can decrease the global maize productivity and grain quality. Maize crop requires an optimal temperature for better harvest productivity. A suboptimal temperature at any critical stage for a prolonged duration can negatively affect the...
Conversion of poultry litter into fertilizer presents an environmentally friendly way for its disposal. The amendment of stabilizing sorption materials (e.g., biochar) to broiler chicken rearing seems promising, as it protects produced litter from nu...
Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is a serious problem in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and other parts of the world. Understanding the effect of marker-based improvement (MARS) of two maize synthetics (HGA and HGB) representing different heterotic groups on the...
Kernel-related traits are important agronomic traits that have a significant impact on maize yield, and the general combining ability (GCA) is one of the most crucial factors in maize breeding. Analyzing the genetic basis of kernel traits and their G...
This study examined the planting density tolerance, grain yield improvement potential, and mechanisms of high-yielding spring maize varieties under increasing planting density and subsoiling. We planted two high-yielding spring maize varieties with a...
Small RNA (sRNA) population in plants comprises of primarily micro RNAs (miRNAs) and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs). MiRNAs play important roles in plant growth and development. The miRNA-derived secondary siRNAs are usually known as phased siRNAs,...
The sustainable high yield of crops is critically important under the current situation of global climate warming. In order to improve regional yield, it is urgent to clarify the limiting factors of local grain yield and change the traditional planti...
Soil salinity poses a significant challenge to agricultural productivity, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions. This study explores the effect of compost, elemental sulfur (ES), sulfur nanoparticles (SNPs), and their combinations, i.e., compost...
Global warming poses a significant threat to crop production and food security, with maize (Zay mays L.) particularly vulnerable to high-temperature stress (HTS). This review explores the detrimental impacts of elevated temperatures on maize developm...
After a basic description of the different sets of genetic tools and genomic approaches most relevant for modern crop breeding (e. g., QTL mapping, GWAS and genomic selection; transcriptomics, qPCR and RNA-seq; transgenesis and gene editing), this re...
The photosynthetic capacity of leaves is determined by their content of nitrogen (N). Nitrogen involved in photosynthesis is divided between soluble proteins and thylakoid membrane proteins. In C4 plants, the photosynthetic apparatus is partitioned b...
Zinc (Zn) deficiency is a global nutritional problem that is reduced through agronomic biofortification. In the current study, the effects of foliar spraying of exogenous ZnSO4·7H2O (0.2% in Quzhou and 0.3% in Licheng, w/v) and/or sucrose (10....
Assessing genetic gains from historical data provides insights to improve breeding programs. This study evaluated the Mozambique National Maize Program’s (MNMP’s) genetic gains using data from advanced germplasm trials conducted at 21 loc...
This research evaluated the efficacy of using two types of biochar (non-modified and acidified) from date palm residues (fronds, leaves, pits) as soil amendments for enhancing soil fertility and maize growth. These biochars were produced through slow...
Drought is one of the most prevailing abiotic stresses affecting the growth, development, and productivity of maize. Knowledge of drought tolerance could help in maize improvement. However, less research has been done to comprehensively evaluate the...
In the North Eastern Himalayan region (NEHR) of India, maize is an important food crop. The local people cultivate the maize landraces and consume them as food. However, these landraces are deficient in β-carotene content. Thus, we aimed to incorpora...
Intensive tillage-based production systems coupled with inefficient fertilizer management practices have led to increased production costs, sub-optimal productivity, and significant environmental externalities. Conservation agriculture (CA) is being...
The NSUN family is essential for RNA 5-methylcytosine modification (m5C) in eukar-yotes. However, no NSUN genes have been identified in maize, and the characteristics of ZmNSUN genes remain unexplored. Here, we performed a comprehensive in-vestigatio...
Chromosome doubling is an important step in the production of maize doubled haploid (DH) lines to induce fertility in the male and female reproductive organs of haploid plants. Chromosomal doubling is routinely accomplished by treating haploid seedli...
Density and fertilization mode are the key factors regulating crude protein synthesis in forage maize; however, there is a lack of systematic understanding of the regulation mechanism. Here, the nitrogen/potassium ratio (N/K), free amino acid (AA) co...
In the crop breeding process, the use of data collection methods that allow reliable assessment of crop adaptation traits, faster and cheaper than those currently in use, can significantly improve resource use efficiency by reducing selection cost an...
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