Jeff Ross-Ibarra and members of his lab study the evolutionary genetics of maize and its ancestral progenitor, teosinte. Maize spread rapidly after domestication, adapting to a wide range of environments. Today maize is grown across a broader geographic breadth than any of the world’s other staple crops, from sea level to altitudes of >4,000m and from deserts to near-flooded conditions. The wild relatives of maize have also adapted to environments varying widely in elevation, temperature, and moisture availability. Thus, maize and its wild relatives provide an ideal model system to understand the genetic basis of adaptation.