Variability in oil composition in maize

Candice Hirsch

A major focus in corn breeding to date has been on increasing yield with little attention paid to compositional properties of the grain. Corn grain is composed of different tissues with different compositional properties including the oil rich embryo, the endosperm that is comprised of a matrix of protein and starch molecules, and the pericarp that is rich in fiber. Studies looking at compositional properties in corn have largely focused on properties of the endosperm tissue due to its importance to a number of different industries (e.g. fresh and canned sweet corn markers, masa based products such as chips and tortillas, etc.). In contrast, very little is known about variation in oil among diverse maize lines. Reports have shown high variability in total oils, which has been linked in large part to the size of the embryo, but an in depth look at the variability on oil characteristics has not been done. Understanding the variation that exists in oil characteristics is an important step in determining the possibility of developing higher value products such as renewable food, fuel, plastics, or other products.

Here we propose to conduct such an analysis in 1) a set of highly diverse lines that represent natural variation in the species, and 2) current elite germplasm that is representative of variation in modern breeding programs.