Insufficient iron (Fe) availability, which frequently occurs in soils with high pH levels, can lead to leaf chlorosis, a reduced Fe content in harvest products, and yield reduction in maize. The objectives of this study were ( i) to describe patterns of sequence variation of 14 candidate genes for mobilization, uptake, and transport of Fe in maize, as well as regulatory function on these processes; ( ii) to examine whether Fe-efficiency is an adaptive trait by determining if these genes were targets of selection during domestication; and ( iii) to test if the allele distribution at these candidate genes is different for the different subpopulations of maize. The nucleotide diversity of Mtk was reduced by 78% in maize compared with teosinte. The results of our study revealed for the genes Naat1, Nas1, Nramp3, Mtk, and Ys1 a selective sweep, which suggests that these genes might be important for the fast adaptation of maize to new environments with different Fe availabilities.