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Quantitative Inheritance of Oil in the Corn Kernel 1
Author(s) -
Sprague G. F.,
Brimhall B.
Publication year - 1949
Publication title -
agronomy journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.752
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1435-0645
pISSN - 0002-1962
DOI - 10.2134/agronj1949.00021962004100010006x
Subject(s) - agricultural experiment station , agriculture , citation , agricultural science , agronomy , political science , library science , geography , biology , computer science , archaeology
HE first experiments on inheritance of the oil conT tent of the corn kernel were begun by Hopkins a t the University of Illinois in 1896. Beginning with an open-pollinated variety he annually selected ears whose kernels had the highest or the lowest oil content, respectively, in conjunction with ear-to-row breeding programs. The results of his work later carried on by other investigators into the 40th year of selection, may be summarized as follows (8, 9 , 16, 17, 1 8 ) ~ : I. In 193 j, the kernels of the high-oil strain contained 12.5% oil and those of the low-oil strain 1.3%~ as compared to 4.7yo for the original unselected variety. Discontinuing selection a t this point caused little change except a slight lowering of the high-oil strain. 2. There was good correlation between the percentage of germ and the percentage of oil in the kernel. While germ size was a very appreciable factor in determining oil content, i t was not the only one. The oil content of the germ itself varied from 2 5 % in the lowoil strains to 42% in the high-oil strain after only a few years of selection. 3. Since the female parent determines germ size, pollination by other strains had little immediate effect on oil content. Earle, et al. (6), using modern double-cross hybrids, obtained results on the distribution of oil in the component parts of the corn kernel in excellent agreement with the earlier values of Hopkins (9). They point out the linear relationship between the percentage of oil in the whole kernel and the percentage of oil contributed by the germ in the range between 4 and 670 oil which they studied. Lindstrom and Gerhardt (IO, I I) studied inheritance of oil content of the kernel in four crosses between sweet and dent corn. The F1 kernels of each of these crosses were intermediate with respect to oil percentage. In the FP generation the starchy and surgary segregates exhibited marked and consistent differences in oil percentage. The starchy segregates exhibited oil percentages similar to those of the F1 kernels. The sugary segregates exhibited oil percentages 2 j to so'% higher than the starchy segregates. Two recent publications (4, 5) dealing with analysis of commercial double-cross hybrids indicate that