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Corn phenotyping initiative enters fourth year

A corn phenotyping initiative that leverages the mapping of the corn genome to identify key corn genetic traits is entering its fourth year.

The research program, called Genomes to Fields, was started by the Iowa Corn Promotion Board. Curt Mether of Logan, Iowa chairs that board’s research committee.

“It’s been a few years ago now, but they mapped the genes of the corn plant. So now they know how many genes are in the corn plant and everything, but they still don’t know what each gene does,” Mether says. “So that’s what this initiative does—it studies each gene and how it reacts with each environment that it’s in.”

Those environmental conditions include temperature, rainfall, soil types and pests.

Mether says one of the requirements of the project is that results need to be made public.

“So it won’t be just certain companies or certain businesses that have access to this. Everybody that wants access can get it, whether it’s universities or small seed companies or whatever.”

Several other states are now participating in the project, including the Brownfield states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio and Wisconsin. Funding also comes from the National Corn Growers Association and USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

AUDIO: Curt Mether