Xiaosa Xu, assistant professor of plant biology in the College of Biological Sciences, has received a UC Office of the President Early Career Faculty Research Excellence Award. The award includes $50,000 to support his research on the evolution of maize.

The UCOP Early Career Faculty Research Excellence Awards were established to advance the university's commitment to the scholarship and creative activity of early career faculty across all 10 UC campuses. This is the first year the awards have been presented.

Xu will use the funding to investigate how maize ear architecture changed during domestication from its wild ancestor, teosinte.

Maize is one of the world's most productive cereal crops. Although its ear changed dramatically during domestication from teosinte, the biological processes underlying those changes remain poorly understood.

"This project will advance our understanding of how maize ear development and architecture evolved during domestication," Xu said. "In the longer term, this knowledge may provide a foundation for research on agriculturally important traits."

The project will use complementary approaches to investigate the biological basis of variation in maize ear architecture. It is titled, Resolving the Cellular Basis of Maize Ear Domestication to Enhance Yield Potential.

Xu joined UC Davis in 2023 after completing a postdoctoral fellowship at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York.