Breeding of special maize types: sweet corn
2009
Salazar, A.M. | Manguiat, P.H. | Laude, T.P. | Beltran, A.K.M., Philippines Univ. Los Baños, College, Laguna (Philippines). Inst. of Plant Breeding. Crop Science Cluster
Sweet corn is the most popular among the special maize types. The trait is based on one or more recessive genes that alter the carbohydrate content and quality of the endosperm. These genes affect the eating quality, ear and plant appearance and even seed viability. Among them are sugary, sunken, and brittle. At harvest stage, these mutants have 4 to 8 times the total sugar found in non-mutant corn. Due to its sweetness, it is harvested at green corn stage and consumed as food. However, limited public breeding research has been done to come up with (cheaper) hybrids that are more productive without sacrificing quality. For this project, the authors developed hybrids and improved populations of sweet corn with higher yield, resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses, and enhanced grain quality. For sweet corn hybrids, the parental inbreds were grouped first according to their genetic backgrounds (shrunken, sugary, and brittle). Crosses were made and evaluated in preliminary and multi-location trials. Over-all, there were three potential single cross hybrids: one brittle (Hi35×Hi36) and two sugary (Su305×Su307 and Su304×Su303) background. Four sweet corn open-pollinated cultivars (Asukar, DLU Pearl Sweet, Supersweet and NutriSweet) were subjected to recurrent selection. The improved level of performance of these different types of materials could hopefully provide the farmers with the option as to which cultivar he would plant depending on his financial resources and available market for his produce.
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