Abstract
In the Origin of Maize Controversy, the Orthodox Teosinte Hypothesis (OTH; Beadle 1939, 1972; Iltis 1971), five key mutations change 2-ranked (distichous) ears of teosinte (wild Zea) with a single row of grains per rank to 4- to many-ranked (polystichous) maize ears with a double row of grains per rank. BUT teosinte ears are lateral to the 1° branch axes, maize ears, like their male homologues, the teosinte I° branch tassel spikes, terminal, an enigma long unrecognized, hence ignored. In the Catastrophic Sexual Transmutation Theory (CSTT; Iltis 1983b, 1987), now abandoned, the I° branch tassel (male) of teosinte (spikelets soft-glumed, paired, i.e., double-rowed per rank, as in maize ears), when brought under female hormonal control by branch condensation, becomes feminized into a maize proto-ear. BUT lateral ears should then have remained teosintoid (2-ranked, each rank with a single row of grains), yet are in fact double-rowed.
Combining OTH and CSTT, the new Sexual Translocation Theory (STLT) is based on: first, the branching pattern of teosinte ear clusters (Cámara-H. & Gambino 1990), sequentially maturing, sympodially branching, typically Andropogonoid systems, called rhipidia (sing, rhipidium), where each higher order (younger) ear originates as a lateral branch of its lower order, earlier maturing predecessor; and second, on 3 or 4 key mutations [cupule reduction, softening of glumes, doubling of female spikelets], which, by projecting outward the grains, invited human domestication by making them accessible. Within each ear cluster, the earliest maturing, hence nutrient-monopolizing and largest ear would be selected, all younger ears, already nutrientinhibited, suppressed. As fewer, larger ears evolved, and branch internode condensation moved male tassels into female hormonal zones, homeotic conversions translocated female morphology to terminal male positions: first replacing each of the II° branch tassels, and ultimately the 1° branch tassel (male), with an ear (female). With this, now female structure in the apically dominant, hence most nutrient-demanding terminal position gradually suppressing all subsidiary ears on the 1° branch beneath it, mutations for polystichy (contingent on nutrient overload) were finally allowed to become expressed, and the multi-rowed maize ear (at first with an atavistic male tail) evolved. Favored by human selection, these increases in apical dominance by stepwise homeotic sexual conversions explain both archeological and morphological realities, but need to be harmonized with recent results of developmental genetics.
Current evidence suggests that teosinte was first tended for its green ears and sugary pith by hunter-gatherers as an occasional rainy-season food in small “garden” populations away from its homeland, and not for its abundant grain-containing, hard fruitcases, which easily mass-collected but useless as food, are as yet unknown from the archeological record. A rare grain-liberating teosinte mutation (probably expressed in only one “founder” plant, a mazoid “Eve”), which exposed the encased grain for easy harvest, was soon recognized as useful, collected and planted (or self-planted). Thus maize was started on its way to a unique horticultural domestication that is not comparable to that of the temperate Old World mass-selected agricultural grains.
Résumé
Pero las mazorcas del teosinte están en una posición lateral orientadas a la rama principal, en forma similar a las estructuras homólogas masculinas, la espiga terminal, un enigma que no se había reconocido y por lo tanto ignorado. En la Teoría Catastrófica de la Transmutación Sexual (CSTT, Iltis 1983b, 1987), actualmente abandonada, se propuso que la espiga masculina de la rama principal del teosinte (con las glumas suaves, en pares, o sea con dos hileras por fila, como la mazorca del maíz) cuando sucede el cambio a un control hormonal femenino, por condensatión de la rama, se convierte en un órgano femenino, como un “prototipo” de mazorca de maíz. Sin embargo, las mazorcas laterales debieron haberse que dado como las del teosinte, es decir, en doblefila y coda fila con una hilera sencilla de granos, aunque en realidad denen dos hueras. La nueva Teoría de la Translocatión Sexual (STLT) combina el OTH y CSTT en base a ciertas características como son: primero el patrón de ramificación de los racimos de las mazorcas del teosinte (Cdmara-H. & Gambino 1990) y el tiempo de maduración, en una secuencia simpodial, como es típico de un Sistema Andropogonoide (ripidio), donde la mazorca de un nivel superior (más jóven) se origina como la de una rama lateral de un nivel inferior y así su predecesor madura más tempranamente. Segundo, como resultado de las tres o cuatro mutaciones cloves (reductión de la cúpula, ablandamiento de las glumas y duplicatión de las espiguillas femeninas), los granos quedaron expuestos, invitando asi a su domesticatión por el ser humano por facilitarse los granos a ser cosechados. Dentro de coda racimo, la mazorca que maduraba más tempranamente, por consiguiente la que acaparaba los nutrientes y por consecuencia la de mayor tamaño síria seleccionada, mientras que, las otras no bien desarrolladas, por falta de nutrientes se verían suprimidas. En el transcurso de la evolutión de las mazorcas más grandes, los internudos se vieron disminuidos en tamaño y con ésta reductión, las espigas masculinas se trasladaron hacia las zonas de hormonas femeninas. Mediante éstas conversiones homeóticas, se cambió la morfologia femenina hacia los sitios masculinos terminales: primero, reemplazando cada uno de los racimos masculinos y posteriormente, el racimo masculino de la rama primaria. Ahora con la estructura femenina en una posición terminal o con dominancia apical y siendo la que necesitaba una mayor concentración de nutrientes, gradualmente inhibió el crecimiento de todas las mazorcas auxiliares inferiores. Las mutaciones poísticas (eventual sobrecargo de nutrientes) finalmente pudieron ser evidentes, evolucionando así en una mazorca con muchas hileras, aunque a menudo, con una espiga atávica. Con el tiempo, las mazorcas fueron mejoradas y seleccionadas por el hombre aumentando así la dominancia apical, originalmente promovida por las conversiones sexuales homeóticas, lo que explican la mayoria de las evidencias arqueológicas y morfológicas. Es necesario comparar tales evidencias con los resultados derivados de la genética de la ontogenia. Ahora se crée que los cazadores y recolectores en la temporada de lluvias, inicialmente utilizaban las mazorcas verdes y tiernas del teosinte, traídas de poblaciones o pequeños “jardines” de áreas alejadas a sus hogares. En realidad, ellos consumían sólo la médula dulce de la mazora y no los granos duros encapsulados, difíciles de comer y aunque éstos eran fáciles de cosechar, el registro aqueológico no demuestra que fueron utilizados. Es probable que haya ocurrido una mutatión en el teosinte en la que se liberó el grano de la cápsula, hecho ocurrido en una sola planta “fundadora” (la “Eva” del maíz), la cual expuso el grano encapsulado haciéndolo fácil de cosechar, al que muy pronto se le reconoció como útil, se colectó y sembró (o sembró por si mismo). Es así como el maíz tuvo una domestication unica en la horticultura, la cual no se compara con la de los cereales seleccionados de cosechas masivas en el Viejo Mundo.
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Homeotic Sexual Translocations And The Origin Of Maize (Zea Mays, Poaceae): A New Look At An Old Problem. Economic Botany 54(L):7-42, 2000.
Distinguished Economic Botanist address, presented to the 39th Annual Meeting of the Society for Economic Botany, University of Aarhus, Denmark, July 15, 1998.
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Iltis, H.H. Homeotic Sexual Translocations and the Origin of Maize (Zea Mays, Poaceae): A New look at an old problem. Econ Bot 54, 7–42 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02866598
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02866598