Diversity

​The changing environments and dynamics of genetics allows and demands a continual need for diversity in corn and, actually, all other aspects of life, including humans. There is no reason to think these dynamics will end. Genetic mutations allowed the origin of Homo sapiens and its adaptation to many environments including those caused by pathogens.  Genetic mutations allowed the origin of corn from a weedy grass species in central Mexico and further adaptations to grain production around the earth.   Natural mutations in this annual plant species and slight changes in the DNA code frequently has no recognizable affect but some provides the needed resistance to a future pathogen, perhaps also undergoing mutations.
 
Efforts of corn breeding programs to continually select the best genotypes for today’s environments, as well as those by corn growers to provide good environments will be critical each year.  This requires continual effort to select those best genetics for the time and place.  We celebrate diversity in corn and humans.