Since maize (corn) is one of the most important and productive agricultural crops both in the United States and world wide, a clear understanding of maize leaf development could inform attempts to improve productivity. Critical gaps, however, remain towards understanding how leaves initiate during the earliest stages of growth. In this project, genes that control leaf initiation will be identified by investigating maize mutants that fail to suppress leaves after the reproductive transition. Reproductive leaf (or bract) suppression presents a promising means to identify genes acting in the earliest stages of leaf initiation. The project will use genome-wide techniques identify the network of genes that are regulating maize bract outgrowth. Since bract suppression has evolved multiple times, these results should also shed light on the evolution of developmental mechanisms.
In order to increase public understanding of evolutionary mechanisms, the project will develop novel curriculum and assessment materials designed identify and address misconception related to evolutionary thinking. Specifically, an assessment that can reveal common misconceptions related to evolutionary trees will be developed, and future high school teachers will be trained to teach biological diversity from an evolutionary framework. The ability to interpret evolutionary trees is key to biological literacy, but the necessary skills are rarely taught and often poorly understood by high school teachers. Ten future teachers and one biology education graduate student involved in this project will be given state of the art training in the nature of science and be uniquely qualified to address this hole in the evolution curriculum.
