You can’t construct a strong building on a weak foundation, and you can’t grow a great corn crop on a weak root system. From freezing temperatures to voracious underground pests and other threats, ...

For decades, his research group in the College of Agricultural Sciences has been uncovering how roots play a critical role in plant development and survival. "Corn is no exception, and it turns out ...

Wondering what’s causing stunted growth and wilting in your corn field? When you see wilting of small corn plants, the first order of business is to examine the roots. You may find that your young ...

Crop breeding for higher yields may be unintentionally reducing the beneficial microorganisms that help plants absorb ...

This figure from the paper shows the evolution of root types from teosinte to modern corn over the last 10 000 years, simulated using the modeling program OpenSimRoot, which was developed by ...

In just about every corner of the globe, maize is an essential crop. Americans, who call it corn, dedicate more than 90 million acres to it — roughly the same size as the entire state of Montana. But ...

The discovery of a gene that regulates the angle of root growth in corn is a new tool to enable the breeding of deeper-rooting crops with enhanced ability to take up nitrogen, according to an ...

ST. LOUIS — There are more than 14 million acres of corn fields in Missouri and Illinois, and like other water-intensive plants, the crop has a large thirst to quench. Corn plants need ...

Various views of well-preserved 5,000-year-old corn roots.The researchers analyzed the anatomy and architecture of these ancient root samples to see how they have changed over time with corn ...

A unique confluence of archeology, molecular genetics and serendipity guided a collaboration of Mexican and Penn State researchers to a deeper understanding of how modern corn was domesticated from ...