Artificial directional selection in corn (Zea mays)

    Starting with a single line of corn, different strains were selected for high or low content of oil (left) or protein (right). Note that decline of oil content ceases after about 20 generations of selection, whereas the high-line has increased nearly doubled over the same period, and is still increasingly linearly after 50 generations. The difference between the two lines is nearly 14-fold after 50 generations. [Evidently there is a lower limit of oil content compatible with survival]. In another strain, protein content has approximately doubled over the same period, with a four-fold difference between lines.