. Bulletin. Natural history; Science. „,^(;„.W».f«»» .„.*b-'""*^*'-f'". higher frequency of high-yielding good corn plants. In this way the corn will be rejuvenated according to the same principles used in producing modern high-yielding corn hybrids. Such rejuvenation has been demonstrated in a well controlled experiment by Lambert and Leng of the University of Illinois, Urbana. These investigators hybridized a well adapted, high-yielding, inbred line of corn with four races of teosinte and made several successive backcrosses to the inbred corn parent. Yields in the second an
. Bulletin. Natural history; Science. „,^(;„.W».f«»» .„.*b-'""*^*'-f'". higher frequency of high-yielding good corn plants. In this way the corn will be rejuvenated according to the same principles used in producing modern high-yielding corn hybrids. Such rejuvenation has been demonstrated in a well controlled experiment by Lambert and Leng of the University of Illinois, Urbana. These investigators hybridized a well adapted, high-yielding, inbred line of corn with four races of teosinte and made several successive backcrosses to the inbred corn parent. Yields in the second and third backcrosses were increased as much as 100 per cent. Such hybridization is not infrequent in parts of tVlexico where corn and teosinte grow close together, thus creating populations in which teosinte and corn genes are exchanged regularly at a rather low frequency. Space does not permit a more detailed presentation of my findings bearing on the teosinte-corn relation. I can only say that I judge them to lend additional support to the view that a teosinte of some 8,000 to 10,000 years ago was the direct ancestor of corn—and was converted into corn over a period of many centuries through human selection. Dr. George W. Beadle is President Emeritus and now Professor at the University of Ctiicago and Adjunct Professor at the University ol lliinois. Urbana. He was co-winner ot the Nobei Prize tor physiology and medicine in 1958 tor his wort< in genetics. This article is a modified version ol the first Donald Forsha Jones Memorial Lecture, which Dr. Beadle presented at the Connecticut Agricultural Experimental Station, New Haven, Connecticut on September 14, 1972. Field Museum Bulletin 11. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Field Museum of Natural History. [Chicago] : The Museum
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