''Coix'' is a genus of Asian and Australian plants in the Poaceae, grass family. The best-known species is ''Coix lacryma-jobi,'' widely called Job's tears. Its variety Coix lacryma-jobi var. ma-yuen, ''Coix lacryma-jobi'' var. ''ma-yuen'' is cultivated in many warm regions as a source of food, medicine, and ornamentation. The generic name is from Ancient Greek κόϊξ (''koix''), which originally referred to the doum palm (''Hyphaene thebaica''); the fruits of the doum palm resemble the Diaspore (botany), diaspores of ''Coix''.

Species

*''Coix aquatica'' Roxb. - China (Yunnan, Guangdong, Guangxi), Indian Subcontinent, Indochina, Peninsular Malaysia; naturalized in New Guinea *''Coix gasteenii'' B.K.Simon - northern Queensland *''Coix lacryma-jobi'' L. - China, Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia; naturalized in other parts of Asia as well as in southern Europe, Africa, the Americas, and various oceanic islands

Formerly Included

see ''Chionachne Polytoca Tripsacum''

Formerly included in

This genus was formerly placed in the Maydeae, now known to be polyphyletic.p.331, "Maize and ''Tripsacum'' were previously grouped with a number of other grasses that have monoecious flowering patterns the most widely known being Job’s tears (''Coix lacryma-jobi'') into the Maydeae (74); however, molecular data revealed that this grouping was polyphyletic (61)."

Proteins and expression

Members of this genus produce their own variety of zein#Gene family, α-zein prolamins. These prolamins have undergone unusually rapid evolutionary divergence from closely related grasses, by way of copy-number changes.p.335, "Clusters of locally duplicated genes can also expand and contract rapidly, as shown by investigation of the 22-kDa α zein gene families in maize, sorghum, and coix, which appear to have experienced independent copy-number amplifications since the divergence of these three species (107)."

References

External links

The World Online Grass Flora Grassbase: ''Coix''
Coix, Poaceae genera Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Andropogoneae {{medicinal-plant-stub