Investigating seed mineral composition in Korean landrace maize (Zea mays L.) and its kernel texture specificity

Mineral malnutrition affects billions of people all over the world and biofortification of staple crops provides a potential way to alleviate dietary mineral deficiencies. For example, nutritional quality is an important breeding target for fresh waxy maize (Zea mays L.), which is widely consumed in Asian countries. Successful improvement of mineral composition will require comprehensive profiling of the mineral composition of maize varieties and an understanding of the capacity for maize grains to accumulate minerals. Here, using inductively coupled plasma absorption emission spectrometry, we quantified 12 minerals from the seeds of 47 maize varieties, including 25 Korean landraces. We also compared the mineral contents in varieties with different seed starch profiles: waxy maize (which contains 100％ amylopectin), dent maize (roughly 75％ amylopectin and 25％ amylose), and flint maize (similar to dent maize). The amounts of potassium, phosphorus, and sulfur were correlated with seed texture, waxy maize having higher amounts of phosphorus and potassium than dent maize and lower amounts of sulfur than flint maize or dent maize. In addition, a positive relationship was detected between the amount of phosphorus and that of potassium, magnesium, and manganese. These results provide information on maize seed mineral composition and indicate that it could be affected by starch composition. Furthermore, the landraces that exhibit high mineral contents could be used as germplasm materials for breeding programs aimed at producing biofortified maize cultivars.