Breeding a New Type: Micro-endosperm Super-high Oil Corn

摘要

Several micro-endosperm lines (embryo/grain weight ≥ 0.4) with super-high oil content (≥20%) corn were screened after 22 generations of selection. Our objective was to breed a new kind of oil corn. There are wide-ranging variations among micro-endosperm super-high oil corn lines in grain weight, oil percentage and embryo/grain weight. Up to now, 32.54% grain oil percentage has been achieved whereas lines combining both high oil and micro-endosperm have reached 26.89% oil. A combination line, whose 100- grain weight is 12.0g, was selected. The results showed that both the heritability of the 100-grain weight and oil percentage in micro-endosperm super- high oil corn were high, and that of oil percentage was higher than grain weight. The correlation between the two traits was neither strongly negative nor significant, so the two traits can be improved at the same time. Corn oil was extracted directly from the whole grain. The contents of oleic and linoleic acids, and of vitamin E, in this kind of corn oil is higher than commercial corn, whereit is is extracted from macerated embryos peeled off whole grain. The grain yield of micro-endosperm corn remains low. Because corn oil has a better edible quality compared to other edible vegetable oils, micro-endosperm corn could still be produced if its yield can be increased to almost the level of other oil corps, such as rape and soybean. Therefore, there is potential for attempting to produce this kind of oil corn for the future.