Cereal endosperm is one of the most important products for human life. The aleurone layer performs meristematic activity during endosperm development. Studies on this process will provide opportunities for controlling endosperm development and enhancing nutritional value.

Maize is the second most cultivated and  produced crop in Korean Peninsular. It has been cultivated throughout the Korean Peninsular since 16th century. The Korean maize landraces have not been intensively studied so far. We are trying to establish Korean maize panel and investigate useful phenotypes from them.

We established a core collection of 276 maize lines, enriched with Korean landraces. Currently, we are performing whole-genome resequencing and conducting a GWAS analysis on the maize genome.