Researchers at Washington University will lead a project to decipher the genetic code of corn, which they say should provide the knowledge leading to better corn yields. Corn is the second crop plant to have its genome sequenced. A team of scientists from 10 countries recently completed a similar project with rice. That work was reported in August in the journal Nature.Lead investigator Richard Wilson said rice was done first because it is a much simpler genome. The weed, arabidopsis, which grows quickly in the lab and has a small and simple genome, was sequenced first as practice for more complex plants, he said.
