Potential Corn Breeding Project

[oldmobie]

I am considering a project inspired by this one.

I have a tiny blue popcorn that I could breed with a larger popcorn just like Grunt and darwinslair have done with the red. If I started with the white seeded popcorn I saw at the grocery store, could I breed a red white and blue popcorn?

I guess I'd like opinions re:
1) How well it would work
2) How well it would be received (Would anyone want it?)

Also advice, like what (or whether) to detassle, or how many generations I can expect this to take would be appreciated. Or difficulties I could expect. If white is recessive, or I'm going to get light blue or pink, that would be good to know, though I'll probably still try it.

Thoughts?

[oxbowfarm]

Blue and white is easy. Red, white and blue is much more difficult. Blue is aleurone pigment and is expressed by the embryo. White is clear pericarp and colorless aluerone. The red corn color I am familiar with is a pericarp color so it's maternal tissue. If a ear has red in it the whole ear is red because all the pericarp comes from the mother plant.

There may be red aleurone pigments, but I'm not sure I've ever seen that. There are definitely purple/mauve aleurone corns. You could probably create a purple/mauve, white, and blue corn fairly easily. The only other possible hitch is if there might be other hidden color genes in one of the corns you use that then suddenly start expressing in the presence of genes from the other corns. So you start with red, white and blue genetics but you start getting other colors, stripes, speckles, etc.

You definitely should hear from Joseph Lofthouse, maicerochico, and DarJones

[DarJones]

Yes, you could select for corn that was red white and blue presuming you start with those colors. But when red and blue are on the same kernel, it will look dark, almost black. You would have to have a white corn with special genetic background. I suggest getting seed of Pennsylvania Butter Flavored white popcorn to start with. It has the traits you would need.

[oldmobie]

Thank you!

You've both given me new info to assimilate already. It never really occurred to me that the different layers have their own pigmentation, controlled by seperate genes. I'm over my head, but worst come to worst, whatever I produce will at least still be corn.

So what's in the Pennsylvania butter flavored that makes a good fit? Is it clear over colorless, maybe? I'll start looking for some to trade, here and at GardenWeb.

[templeton]

Might a different approach, looking for separate blue, red and white varieties that you just mix be an easier option? Tho I totally understand the desire to get it all in one.
T

[samyaza]

Want to breed some patriotic strain of corn ? Or maybe French ? Just choose your flag and stick it on the stalks ! ;-)

[ilex]

Didn't LISP do this? Check their pages

[oxbowfarm]

I doesn't look like he actually did it, but he has a pretty good discussion of the issues in creating this exact color mixture.

[oldmobie]

Mar 28, 2014 1:49:14 GMT -5 samyaza said:

Want to breed some patriotic strain of corn ? Or maybe French ? Just choose your flag and stick it on the stalks ! ;-)

That would save a lot of time compared to getting all the blue to gather at the stem end and the red and white to line up in vertical stripes!

Canadian would be the real nightmare... how would you get corn kernels to draw a maple leaf?

[oldmobie]

So it looks as if I should still try, and enjoy the experiment, but don't get my expectations too high. Thanks for the feedback, everyone! It has probably spared me a great deal of future frustration.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Mar 28, 2014 14:06:06 GMT -5 oldmobie said:

Canadian would be the real nightmare... how would you get corn kernels to draw a maple leaf?

Choose a strain of corn with photosensitive kernels... At about the dough stage, shuck the cob and replace the husk with something like a dark piece of paper or rubber or tape with a stencil cut-out on it in the shape of a maple leaf. The kernels exposed to the light would turn out to be a different color than the kernels under the masking... I haven't paid all that much attention, but red/yellow is a common photosensitive combination. The same stenciling technique could be used to write words on a cob, or a spiral pattern, etc.

[oldmobie]

Mar 28, 2014 15:31:33 GMT -5 Joseph Lofthouse said:

Choose a strain of corn with photosensitive kernels... At about the dough stage, shuck the cob and replace the husk with something like a dark piece of paper or rubber or tape with a stencil cut-out on it in the shape of a maple leaf. The kernels exposed to the light would turn out to be a different color than the kernels under the masking... I haven't paid all that much attention, but red/yellow is a common photosensitive combination. The same stenciling technique could be used to write words on a cob, or a spiral pattern, etc.

Sorry, that was a smart-alec, "unanswerable" question. Forgot I'm playin' with the big boys now!

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Mar 28, 2014 16:50:45 GMT -5 oldmobie said:

Sorry, that was a smart-alec, "unanswerable" question. Forgot I'm playin' with the big boys now!

Ha! I even have photos of the effect. These were not deliberate, just cobs where the husk didn't fully cover the kernels. Corn plants with photosensitive seeds also tend to have photosensitive silks, so I'd do preliminary screening by looking for plants with yellow silks turning pink/red.





If I'm remembering right I think these cobs are also photosensitive:

[maicerochico]

It is possible to get red, white, and blue kernels on the same ear if both the red and blue come from the aleurone layer. However, I have never seen a popcorn with red aleurone, only red pericarp (and even then, the "red" is more of a purplish-red). If you wanted those colors, the red aleurone would have to come in from a floury corn.

The far right ear in this picture has both blue and "red" kernels.

www.ars-grin.gov/npgs/images/nc7/accvoucher/Zea/PI_400000-PI_499999/PI_471821/i/PI_471821_04ncei01_SD_ER_LS_2006-02-23_04.jpg

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Here's what the aleurone coloring looks like on some of my popcorn cobs. (Yes, the blues and reds were dragged in from non-popping corns.) If I were attempting a red/white/blue popcorn project, I would grow a population with white only kernels, and a population with red aleurone, and a population with blue aleurone. And eliminate all yellow endosperm and colored pericarps. Then I would plant a row of white corn, and detassel it an then pollinate it with red/white/blue pollen donors.