Scientists continue to debate the ancestry of domesticated corn.
But Duke University researcher Mary Eubanks said she has mounting evidence that corn emerged from the interbreeding of two different wild American grasses. Those grasses are Tripsacum dactyloides , also known as Eastern gamagrass, and Zea diploperennis , a perennial variety of teosinte. By successfully crossing them for the first time, Eubanks has produced fertile offspring that closely resemble the earliest known samples of primitive domesticated corn, she said in a recent interview. She will report on her work again at an August meeting of the American Institute of Biological Sciences in Montreal. If Tripsacum is indeed a corn ancestor, then breeders could take advantage of some of the special traits of that hardy ubiquitous plant, the Duke botany research scientist said.