Maize Breeding in the Highlands of Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia: A Review

Mendoza, José Luis Zambrano; Yánez, Carlos; Sangoquiza, Carlos

doi:10.3390/agronomy11020212

Cited by 10 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…The Incas negotiated this adverse topography by creating a network of terraces supported by a highly sophisticated irrigation system, where they cultivated 70 different crops specifically adapted to local conditions from 1000 to more than 4500 m a.s.l. They developed more than 50 varieties of maize and 4000 varieties of potatoes, which supply valuable diversity for breeding programmes today (de Haan and Rodriguez, 2016; Zambrano et al., 2021). The diversified food production matrix was complemented by a system of storage that included freeze‐drying potatoes into ‘chuño’, which could then be preserved for more than a year without spoiling (De Jong, 2016).…”

Section: Agriculture Has Always Been Conditioned By Climatic Eventsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhancing crop diversity for food security in the face of climate uncertainty

et al. 2021

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SUMMARY Global agriculture is dominated by a handful of species that currently supply a huge proportion of our food and feed. It additionally faces the massive challenge of providing food for 10 billion people by 2050, despite increasing environmental deterioration. One way to better plan production in the face of current and continuing climate change is to better understand how our domestication of these crops included their adaptation to environments that were highly distinct from those of their centre of origin. There are many prominent examples of this, including the development of temperate Zea mays (maize) and the alteration of day‐length requirements in Solanum tuberosum (potato). Despite the pre‐eminence of some 15 crops, more than 50 000 species are edible, with 7000 of these considered semi‐cultivated. Opportunities afforded by next‐generation sequencing technologies alongside other methods, including metabolomics and high‐throughput phenotyping, are starting to contribute to a better characterization of a handful of these species. Moreover, the first examples of de novo domestication have appeared, whereby key target genes are modified in a wild species in order to confer predictable traits of agronomic value. Here, we review the scale of the challenge, drawing extensively on the characterization of past agriculture to suggest informed strategies upon which the breeding of future climate‐resilient crops can be based.

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Section: Agriculture Has Always Been Conditioned By Climatic Eventsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhancing crop diversity for food security in the face of climate uncertainty

et al. 2021

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“…Water 2024, 16, 1033 2 of 11 Maize (Zea mays L.) holds considerable agricultural importance in the Andean region, primarily due to its extensive cultivation area. It stands as the most extensively cultivated crop in the highlands of Ecuador, playing a pivotal role in securing the region's food security [7]. In addition, the maize landraces grown in the region carry significant cultural heritage, intertwined with local traditions and traditional products [8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring Plastic Mulching as a Strategy for Mitigating Drought Stress and Boosting Maize Yield in the Ecuadorian Andes

Zambrano,

Cartagena,

Sangoquiza

et al. 2024

Water

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Global food security faces a substantial risk stemming from water scarcity, particularly in regions heavily dependent on rainfall for agricultural purposes. In the Andean region, which is grappling with water scarcity, innovative and sustainable approaches are imperative for securing food sources. Plastic mulching has emerged as a potential solution to address water scarcity challenges by conserving soil moisture and optimizing growing conditions. A two-year field experiment was conducted that evaluated the efficacy of plastic mulching in preserving soil water content and reducing drought stress for maize. Two maize cultivars were grown with plastic mulching and conventional practices using a randomized completed block design with three replicates. The results demonstrated that employing plastic mulch led to a rise in the soil water content, particularly within the initial 30 cm of depth, resulting in variances of up to 4.71% humidity between the 20 and 30 cm depths. For the 2019 and 2020 evaluation years, plastic mulching elevated the volumetric water content in the first 30 cm of the soil by 8.39% and 14.18%, respectively. Additionally, it elevated the soil temperature by 1.26 °C and reduced the maize flowering time. Plastic mulching substantially enhanced the fresh corn yield, reaching a 162% increase compared to conventional plots. These findings underscore the potential benefits of plastic mulching in conserving the soil water content, alleviating drought and cold stress for crops in the Andean region.

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“…Highland maize is cultivated in cold, mountainous regions worldwide, at altitudes of up to 4,000 m above sea level (masl) and with mean growing season temperatures below 20 °C ( Lothrop 1994 ; Hartkamp et al 2000 )⁠. The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) estimates that >6 million hectares (Mha) are used for highland maize production worldwide, mainly in developing countries where it is grown by smallholder farmers as one of the main sources of calories in their diet ( Lothrop 1994 ; Zambrano et al 2021 )⁠. Mexico (∼2.9 Mha, 46.6%) and South America (∼0.6 Mha, 9.4%) are two major highland maize-producing regions and are geographically separated from each other.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Allele-specific Expression Reveals Multiple Paths to Highland Adaptation in Maize

Crow

Nojoomi

et al. 2022

Molecular Biology and Evolution

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Maize is a staple food of smallholder farmers living in highland regions up to 4,000 meters above sea level worldwide. Mexican and South American highlands are two major highland maize growing regions, and population genetic data suggests the maize’s adaptation to these regions occurred largely independently, providing a case study for convergent evolution. To better understand the mechanistic basis of highland adaptation, we crossed maize landraces from 108 highland and lowland sites of Mexico and South America with the inbred line B73 to produce F1 hybrids and grew them in both highland and lowland sites in Mexico. We identified thousands of genes with divergent expression between highland and lowland populations. Hundreds of these genes show patterns of convergent evolution between Mexico and South America. To dissect the genetic architecture of the divergent gene expression, we developed a novel allele-specific expression analysis pipeline to detect genes with divergent functional cis-regulatory variation between highland and lowland populations. We identified hundreds of genes with divergent cis-regulation between highland and lowland landrace alleles, with 20 in common between regions, further suggesting convergence in the genes underlying highland adaptation. Further analyses suggest multiple mechanisms contribute to this convergence in gene regulation. Although the vast majority of evolutionary changes associated with highland adaptation were region-specific, our findings highlight an important role for convergence at the gene expression and gene regulation levels as well.

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Maize Breeding in the Highlands of Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia: A Review

Cited by 10 publications

References 8 publications

Enhancing crop diversity for food security in the face of climate uncertainty

Enhancing crop diversity for food security in the face of climate uncertainty

Exploring Plastic Mulching as a Strategy for Mitigating Drought Stress and Boosting Maize Yield in the Ecuadorian Andes

Allele-specific Expression Reveals Multiple Paths to Highland Adaptation in Maize

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