Seeds of Maize and teosinte have plenty of characteristics useful to distinguish between them, one is about the form that germplasm is constituted.

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The most evident effect as for germplasm change, was the lost of the teosinte glume hard cover (seed a is a teosinte normal seed) in transgenic Cu-200-5 (b,c,d) as well the anthocyanin synthesis rising in aleuron. At the picture beside, it can be seen clearly red seeds (b, pelargonidine in aleurone), purple (c, cyanidin) and yellow (d, non-pigmented aleuron).       These seeds contain more starch than the normal seeds of teosinte . These morphological changes are clearly evolutive steps to maize due to maize DO NOT have a hard cover.

To watch pelargonidine and cyanidin 3D structure:

    Take a walk around our research about maize evolution with the sensitive map.

Published in "La importancia biológica de los iones inorgánicos" edited by
Universidad Michoacana.