Source: John Hart, SOUTHEAST FARM PRESS, 3/21/18


In the 1900s, scientists began to understand the importance of hybridization, learning to take advantage of hybrid vigor and the crossing of inbred lines. This led to improved hybrids and dramatic increases in corn yields starting in the 1940s. Today, breeders are turning to genomics to develop better-yielding corn hybrids, where they pursue multiple traits at once and use marker assisted selection and genomes from a diversity of inbred lines to improve varieties.

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