1. Basic information / Li Kefeng and Ramakrishna Wusirika -- 2. Breeding and genetic diversity / Major M. Goodman, James B. Holland and J. Jesus Sanchez G. -- 3. Genomic distribution of genetic diversity in elite maize germplasm / Christine Hainey, J. Antoni Rafalski, Michael Hanafey, Ying Zhang, William Krespan, Stanley D. Luck, Oscar S. Smith, Geoff Graham and Scott Tingey -- 4. Genetic inference on quantitative traits through linkage and association studies / Seth C. Murray and Randall J. Wisser -- 5. Molecular marker-assisted breeding for tropical maize improvement / B.M. Prasanna, Raman Babu, Sudha Nair, Kassa Semagn, Vijay Chaikam, Jill Cairns, Xuecai Zhang, Yunbi Xu and Michael Olsen -- 6. Comparative genomics / Ramakrishna Wusirika and Rafi Shaik -- 7. Functional genomics / Christine M. Gault and A. Mark Settles -- 8. Epigenomics / Thelma F. Madzima, Amy Sloan, Linda Stroud and Karen M. McGinnis -- 9. Proteomic research progress in maize development, stress response and heterosis / Jihua Tang, Zhiyuan Fu and Baichen Wang -- 10. Artificial chromosome platforms in maize / James A. Birchler -- 11. Databases / Mary L. Schaeffer, Taner Z. Sen and Carolyn J. Lawrence -- 12. Non-traditional uses of maize : biofuels, remediation and pharmaceuticals / Rupali Datta, Goeff K. Kinrade and Dibyendu Sarkar -- 13. Future maize hybrid development : breeding with assistance of molecular and genomics technologies and transgenics / Mei Guo and Mark Cooper.