I had a lecture from the main researcher of that paper when I was in undergrad, fantastic lecturer and very interesting topic. The whole class actually applauded him after he finished (that isn't something that happens in US universities usually).

Do you mean https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Doebley ? See also https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/25/science/25creature.html for the story of how maize was traced back to teosinte using hybrids and some literature with more scientific detail: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0168952592...