John Doebley
Position title: Emeritus Professor
Email: jdoebley@wisc.edu
Phone: 608-265-5803
Address:
Genetics and Medical Genetics
Quantitative genetics of maize-teosinte evolution
- Address
- 3102 Genetics/Biotech
- Education
- Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison (1980), Postdoctoral Research: North Carolina State University
- Department
- Genetics and Medical Genetics
- Research Interests
- My research focuses on the genetics of the evolution of plant form using maize as our model system and quantitative genetics as our main analytical approach.
- Research Fields
- Evolutionary & Population Genetics, Plants

Research Description:
Our group is trying to understand the genetic basis of the evolution of new morphological traits in plants. How many genes contribute to the evolution of a new trait? Are these genes regulatory or structural? Do the alterations in these genes affect protein function or gene expression? Research in my laboratory addresses these and related questions using maize and its wild relatives as a model system.
Representative Publications:
Search PubMed for more publications by John Doebley
Lemmon, Z. H., R. Burkowski, Q. Sun and J. Doebley. 2014. The role of cis regulatory evolution in maize domestication. PLoS Genetics 10: e1004745 (15 pages).
Lemmon, Z. H. and J. Doebley. 2014. Genetic dissection of a genomic region with pleiotropic effects on domestication traits in maize reveals multiple linked QTL. Genetics 198: 345–353
Wills, D. M., C. J. Whipple, S. Takuno, L. E. Kursel, L. M. Shannon, J. Ross-Ibarra, J. F. Doebley. 2013. From many, one: genetic control of prolificacy during maize domestication. PLoS Genetics 9: e1003604 (13 pages).
Hung(1), H. Y., L. M. Shannon(1), F. Tian(1), P. J. Bradbury, C. Chen, S. A. Flint-Garcia, M. D. McMullen, D. Ware, E. S. Buckler, J. F. Doebley, J. B. Holland. 2012. ZmCCT and the genetic basis of day-length adaptation underlying the post-domestication spread of maize. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 109: E1913-E1921. [1 – These three authors contributed equally and are listed in alphabetical order.]
Lin, Z., X. Li, L.M. Shannon, C.-T. Yeh, M. L. Wang, G. Bai, J. Li, T. E. Clemente , H. N. Trick, J. Doebley, P.S. Schnable, M. R. Tuinstra, T. T. Tesso, F. White, and J. Yu. 2012. Parallel domestication of the Shattering1 genes in cereals. Nature Genetics 44: 720-724.
Studer, A., Q. Zhao, J. Ross-Ibarra, and J. Doebley. 2011. A transposon insertion was the causative mutation in the maize domestication gene tb1. Nature Genetics 43: 1160-1163.
Studer, A., and J. Doebley. 2011. Do large effect QTL fractionate? A case study at the maize domestication QTL teosinte branched1. Genetics 188: 673-681.
Zhao, Z., A. L. Weber, M. D. McMullen, K. Guill, and J. Doebley. 2011. MADS-box genes of maize: frequent targets of selection during domestication. Genetical Research 93: 65-75.
Weber, A. L., W. H. Briggs, J. Rucker, B. M. Baltazar, J. J. Sánchez-Gonzalez, P. Feng, E. S. Buckler and J. Doebley. 2008. The genetic architecture of complex traits in teosinte (Zea mays ssp. parviglumis): new evidence from association mapping. Genetics 180:1221–1232.
Vigouroux, Y., J. C. Glaubitz, Y. Matsuoka, M. M. Goodman, J. Sanchez G. and J. Doebley. 2008. Population structure and genetic diversity of New World maize landraces assessed by DNA Microsatellites. Amer. J. Botany 95:1240-1253.
Clark, R, T. Nussbaum-Wagler, P. Quijada and J. Doebley. 2006. A distant upstream enhancer at the maize domestication gene, tb1, has pleiotropic effects on plant and inflorescent architecture. Nature Genetics 38: 594- 597.
Bomblies, K., and J. Doebley. 2006. Pleiotropic effects of the duplicate maize FLORICAULA/LEAFY genes zfl1 and zfl2 on traits under selection during maize domestication. Genetics 172: 519-531.