Latin American Maize Project (LAMP) and Germplasm Enhancement of Maize (GEM) project: generating useful breeding germplasm [Zea mays L.; USA]

Finding and incorporating new maize genetic resources into productive varieties cannot be accomplished without long-term sustained effort. The wide genetic diversity of the crop has been maintained in germplasm banks. Using this diversity in breeding projects is difficult and has met with little success in the past. In 1987, a 5-year maize evaluation project named the Latin American Maize Project (LAMP) used coordinated National and International efforts to evaluate many maize accessions. Most selected LAMP germplasm is unadapted to temperate locations and requires a long-term approach of conversion and selective adaptation to the major corn growing areas of the US. To accomplish this, an unprecedented public/private research effort to utilize the genetic diversity from LAMP and other elite exotic sources was initiated as the Germplasm Enhancement of Maize project (GEM). This project is a unique example of collaboration in which public entities and private seed companies work together with the objective of increasing the productivity and genetic diversity of maize grown in the US. The results indicate that alleles from exotic sources can be combined with genes of elite Corn Belt lines to generate materials useful in breeding programs. We think the approaches taken by LAMP and GEM solved, in part, some of the greatest difficulties experienced by plant breeders using exotic germplasm for improving quantitative traits