Wenjun Xie, National Maize Improvement Center of China, China Agricultural University, China
Weiwei Jin, National Maize Improvement Center of China, China Agricultural University, China
Coix L.,including many species,distributes across the Southeast Asia.The cultivar Coix lacryma-jobi L.is a traditional medical and tonic herb in Asia,especially in China.In recent years,the reports on the extract of Coix lacryma-jobi L.can help treat and prevent cancer attract extensive attention.Evolutionarily,Coix L.consists of close relatives of maize(Zea mays L.),therefore cytogenetics,genomics and comparative genomics of Coix L.can not only help to improve the germplasm of Coix lacryma-jobi L.and maize,but also shed light on the underlying mechanisms of evolution and differentiation of Gramineae.In this review,we summarized the recent research advances on Coix L.,and discussed the prospects of future study briefly.
