Preliminary Studies in the Development of Truman Popcorn

---

Jody Heckethorn.
Dr. Mark Campbell, Faculty Mentor, 1999.

---

Many genes in maize regulate in the production of anthocyanin, a pigment deposited within the aleurone layer that lies beneath the seed coat. In a 1997 breeding nursery at the Truman Agriculture Research Farm the popcorn variety Shaman Blue, believed to be homozygous for the dominant color (C) allele, was studied. Shaman Blue produces anthocyanin at levels which give kernels a dark purple to almost black appearance. We took advantage of the additivity at this locus and the triploid nature of the nuclei in the aleurone cells to generate four triploid genotypic classes following reciprocal crossing with a white popcorn variety. Upon examination, the CCC and CCc genotypes were dark purple to nearly black while the genotype CCc more closely represented Truman's purple. A crossing block was designed in a 1998 field trial to produce Truman Popcorn having ears with kernels segregating white (ccc) and purple (Ccc) in approximately a 1:1 ratio.