A team of scientists led by The Genome Center at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, USA, published the completed corn genome in the November 20 journal Science, an accomplishment that will speed efforts to develop better crop varieties to meet the world's growing demands for food, livestock feed and fuel.

"Seed companies and maize geneticists will pounce on this data to find their favorite genes," said senior author Richard K. Wilson, director of Washington University's Genome Center, who led the multi-institutional sequencing effort.

"Now they'll know exactly where those genes are.

"Having the complete genome in hand will make it easier to breed new varieties of corn that produce higher yields or are more tolerant to extreme heat, drought or other conditions."

Corn, also known as maize, is the top United States crop and the basis of products ranging from breakfast cereal to toothpaste, shoe polish and ethanol.

The corn genome is a hodgepodge of some 32,000 genes crammed into just 10 chromosomes.

In comparison, humans have 20,000 genes dispersed among 23 chromosomes.

The $US29.5 million maize sequencing project began in 2005 and is funded by the National Science Foundation and the US departments of agriculture and energy.

The genome was sequenced at Washington University’s Genome Center.

The overall effort involved more than 150 US scientists with those at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Iowa State University playing key roles.