Pablo Bolanos Villegas, is the leading author in “Diversity in somatic DNA repair efficiencies between commercial inbred maize lines and native Central American purple landraces”

Exposure to UV radiation damages DNA and worsens drought stress in crops. In Central America the main crop is maize. It was determined that local maize landraces repair their DNA efficiently compared to US inbred lines. The explanation may line in unique variation in the genes responsible for high fidelity repair. These results suggest that landraces constitute a readily available reservoir of genes for the breeding of stress tolerance.

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