Variation Among Physical, Compositional, and Wet-Milling Characteristics of the F1 Generation of Corn Hybrids of Introgressed Exotic and Adapted Inbred Lines

Hybrids with high grain yield and higher starch, protein, or oil content are available to corn growers; however, they result from crossing adapted Corn Belt inbred lines that rarely include exotic germplasm. This study was conducted to determine whether Corn Belt lines introgressed with exotic materials from Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Cuba, and Florida have appropriate wet-milling characteristics in their hybrids. Ten lines from the Germplasm Enhancement of Maize (GEM) project with different starch contents were crossed to three adapted inbred lines used as testers. The B73×Mo17 hybrid was used as a control. The F1 generation of these 30 experimental hybrids was analyzed using both near-infrared transmittance (NIT) technology and a 100-g modified wet-milling procedure, and measuring test and 1,000-kernel weight. There was great variation among physical, compositional, and wet-milling characteristics of the experimental hybrids, suggesting that exotic germplasm can be used to improve wet-milling characteristics of Corn Belt hybrids.