Changes on Sugar and Starch Contents during Seed Development of Synergistic Sweet Corn and Implication on Seed Quality

Abstract

Synergistic sweet corn equipped with multiple-recessive genes encoding sugar synthesis is proposed through hybrid breeding to improve the balance eating quality including flavor, texture, and aroma. However, the drawback on seed quality occurs such as low germination and poor seedling vigor. This study aimed to investigate the changes of carbohydrate contents on seed quality of five sweet corn genotypes differing in the number of equipped recessive genes during seed development. Seeds were sampled at 4-day intervals from 18 to 46 days after pollination (DAP) and analyzed for seed germination, sugar, water-soluble polysaccharide, and starch. Then, their relationships were analyzed by using time series regression analysis. Although there were significant differences among 5 corn genotypes in their seed germination and carbohydrate contents, some genotypes showed responses in similar patterns. The optimal time to harvest seeds was genotype-dependent, which were 38 DAP for triple-recessive gene (btbtsh2sh2wxwx) and single-recessive genes (BtBtsh2sh2WxWx and Sh2Sh2susuWxWx) and 42 DAP for double-recessive genes (BtBtsh2sh2wxwx). The regression analysis revealed that seed germinability could be predicted by total starch content in synergistic sweet corn lines during seed development stages; however, this prediction seemed to be negligible in sweet corn genotypes equipped with a single-recessive gene. Implications and further suggestions for establishing an effective seed production technique and seed quality of synergistic sweet corn are discussed.

Physicochemical, bioactive compounds and antioxidant activities of sweet red corn under different drying methods

“…The composition of soluble sugars in corn was discovered to be mostly composed of sucrose, glucose, and fructose, respectively (Chumroenphat et al, 2021). Sucrose was the most abundant soluble saccharide among all endosperm sugar components (Harakotr et al, 2022). On the other hand, this investigation found maltose, a disaccharide of sugar was important sugar in corn (Mousavi et al, 2024).…”

“…The fresh sample had the highest total sugar was 603 µg/g db and with the following order: fresh>HD80 and HD40, SD and FD were no significantly. For HD60 was lowest content of total sugar, these results could be explained by 60°C for liquid faction; along with the addition of amylolytic enzymes (amylase) to hydrolyse starch into glucose (Vohra et al, 2014) and the hydrolyzation of sucrose by invertases or synthases into glucose and fructose during the drying process (Harakotr et al, 2022;Reyes et al, 1982). Table 3.…”

“…Sugar extraction was performed by mixing 0.1 g of powdered dry samples and fresh samples with 5 mL of distilled water, incubating for 30 minutes at 80°C, and then extracting the sugar after analysing the supernatants by HPLC (Shimadzu 20 series) after filtration through a 0.22 mm filter, according to Harakotr et al (2022).…”

“…Sweet corn (Zea mays) is a widely cultivated and consumed 2 crop known for its pleasant taste and nutritional value (Yang et al, 2019). Additionally, there has been a growing interest in sweet red corn varieties due to their vibrant color and potential health benefits associated with the presence of bioactive compounds (Harakotr et al, 2022). The 'Siam Ruby Queen' variety of sweet red corn is particularly attractive, with its deep red kernels that are visually appealing and may contain higher levels of bioactive compounds compared to traditional yellow or white corn varieties (Harakotr et al, 2014;Hong et al, 2020).…”

Genetic variation for endosperm carbohydrates and total soluble solids in shrunken2, sugary1, waxy1, and wild‐type near‐isogenic corn lines across three harvest dates

“…Other methods to assess eating quality, such as using trained sensory panels or laboratory methods of quantitatively measuring flavor components, are costly and time consuming and therefore often limited to evaluating late‐stage breeding material (Dawson & Healy, 2018). Given the trade‐off between high eating‐quality and agronomic traits such as germination and vigor, it is likely that lines with favorable alleles for eating quality are discarded early in the breeding process (Harakotr et al., 2022; Rowe & Garwood, 1978; Tracy et al., 2019). A rapid and inexpensive method of quantifying carbohydrate content would serve to speed up the breeding process and allow for material to be evaluated earlier in the pipeline for quality traits.…”