Maize Genetics 2025: Innovation, Collaboration, and Discovery in St. Louis

Submitted by aolson on Fri, 04/11/2025 - 15:36

The 67th Annual Maize Genetics Coorperation Meeting was held from March 6–9, 2025, in St. Louis, Missouri, bringing together over 300 leading scientists and researchers to share the latest advances in maize genetics. The conference featured cutting-edge presentations, interactive workshops, and a showcase of industry exhibits, fostering collaboration across academic and commercial sectors.

Among the participants was Zhenyuan Lu from the Ware Lab at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, who presented his poster, “Gramene Plants: Empowering Agricultural Research from Genomic Diversity Through Pan-Genome Analysis,” highlighting novel approaches to leveraging genomic diversity in plant research.

Plenary sessions featured a distinguished lineup of speakers:

  • Dr. Jonathan F. Wendel (Iowa State University) captivated the audience with his talk, “Genes, Jeans, Genomes, and the Wonders of Polyploidy in Plants,” tracing the evolutionary story of polyploidy through the lens of cotton.

  • Dr. Ivan Baxter (Donald Danforth Plant Science Center) presented, “You Need a Real Maize Geneticist,” discussing strategies to enhance water use efficiency using high-throughput phenotyping and pan-genome and transcriptome data.

  • Dr. Sióbhan Brady (HHMI and UC Davis) shared insights from her lab’s work on how root cell types adapt to stress through cell wall modifications, in her talk titled “Environmental Integration with Root Cell Type Development.”

  • Dr. Helen Anne Curry (Georgia Tech) concluded the plenary series with a thought-provoking historical perspective in her presentation, “Input, Insurance, Objective: Reflections on Diversity from the History of Crop Science,” using endangered maize as a focal point for examining the evolution of crop genetic conservation.

The meeting underscored the dynamic progress and interdisciplinary collaboration shaping the future of maize genetics research.