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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Ames, Iowa » Corn Insects and Crop Genetics Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #245006
Title: Variation among Physical, Compositional, and Wet-Milling Characteristics of the F1 Generation of Corn Hybrids of Introgressed Exotic and Adapted Inbred Lines

Author
item TABOADA-GAYTAN, OSWALDO - IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
item POLLAK, LINDA
item JOHNSON, LAWRENCE - IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
item FOX, STEVEN - IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
item MONTGOMERY, KEVEN - MONTGOMERY CONSULTING

Submitted to: Cereal Chemistry
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/14/2009
Publication Date: 4/15/2010
Citation: Taboada-Gaytan, O., Pollak, L.M., Johnson, L.A., Fox, S.R., Montgomery, K.T. 2010. Variation among Physical, Compositional, and Wet-Milling Characteristics of the F1 Generation of Corn Hybrids of Introgressed Exotic and Adapted Inbred Lines. Cereal Chemistry. 87:175-181.

Interpretive Summary: Introgressed exotic germplasm released by the Germplasm Enhancement of Maize (GEM) project is a valuable source of new breeding lines for public and private corn breeding programs. Because of the wide range of corn utilization in food, fuel and feed, it is important to know how these lines affect end-user quality. For wet milling, previously we found that GEM lines and their experimental hybrids of the F1 or seed generation could have similar or better starch yield and starch recovery than Corn Belt checks after laboratory wet milling. Our objective was to evaluate wet milling traits of the F2, or grain generation that would be harvested by the farmer, of the experimental hybrids of GEM lines crossed to three Corn Belt tester lines. Similar to the F1 generation there was great variation found in wet milling, seed composition, and physical properties in the F2 grain. This result shows that exotic germplasm can be used to improve U.S. hybrids so that grain produced by farmers can improve wet milling efficiency. Exotic sources were identified that produce grain with better starch yield and starch recovery than a Corn Belt check, and some exotic sources were identified that combined well with certain Corn Belt tester lines for these traits. This suggests that the GEM lines are useful to improve end-use quality of corn, and will be useful to the corn breeders developing germplasm for the milling industry for products like starch and sweeteners for food and ethanol for fuel.

Technical Abstract: Kernels from corn (Zea Mays L.) are one of the most economical sources of metabolizable energy used in livestock feeding and starch used for the processing industry for food and industrial products. Starch is the most important fraction from the wet-milling process and indicates the ease with which kernel components are separated. Corn breeders have developed new hybrids with enhanced compositional characteristics that are available to growers but corn lines from exotic germplasm represent little of the germplasm base used to produce the hybrids grown in the United States. Studies to determine the physical, compositional, and wet-milling properties of new hybrids, as well as the proximate composition of recovered fractions, need to be conducted at the laboratory level before these materials are of value to the corn processing industry. Ten lines from the Germplasm Enhancement of Maize (GEM) project with exotic germplasm introgressed from Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Cuba and Florida were crossed to three adapted inbred lines and grain from the resulting thirty hybrids were evaluated to determine their physical, compositional, and wet-milling characteristics and the expression of heterosis in these variables. The B73 x Mo17 hybrid was used as control. The F2 or grain generation of these 30 experimental hybrids, obtained by self-pollination of the F1, was analyzed using both Near-Infrared transmittance (NIT) technology and a 100-g wet-milling procedure. There was great variation among physical, compositional, and wet-milling characteristics and some of the experimental hybrids with exotic origin, such as AR285, CH182, and FS32 by tester 3 and CU562 by tester 2, had better starch yield and starch recovery than B73xMo17, which suggests that genetic diversity is present and that potential to improve wet-milling characteristics of hybrids grown in the United States through breeding can be found in exotic germplasm.