Thermal Properties of Starch fron New Corn Lines as Impacted by Environment and During Line Development

摘要

The objectives of this research were to further characterize exotic by adapted corn inbreds by studying the impact of environment on their starch thermal properties, and investigating the development of starch thermal properties during kernel maturation by using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). A method to expedite identification of unusual starch thermal traits was investigated by examining five corn kernels at a time, instead of one kernel, which the previous screening methods used. Corn lines with known thermal functions were blended with background starch (control) in ratios of unique starch to control starch, and analyzed by using DSC. Control starch was representative of typical corn starch. The values for each ratio within a mutant type were unique ((alpha) < 0.01) for most DSC measurements. These results supported the five-kernel method for rapidly screening large amounts of corn germplasm to identify unusual starch traits. The effects of 5 growing locations (Ames, Iowa; Clinton, Illinois; Columbia, Missouri; and Ponce, Puerto Rico) on starch thermal properties from exotic by adapted corn and Corn Belt lines were studied using DSC.