Popcorn Outreach Project

An investigation of pigmentation in popcorn

Background

The Popcorn Outreach Project was established to communicate the science behind plant breeding to the general public, and more specifically students interested in Crop Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. A branch of this project researches the role of the pr1 gene in producing orange pigment in popcorn. This is the focus of most of my work in the Studer Lab.

However, we know relatively little about how the pr1 gene interacts with other pigments to produce an orange color. In other words, pigment genes are complicated!

Goals

2017 – present

GENE FUNCTION

Develop a basic understanding of the role of the pr1 gene in producing orange pigment.

popcorn development

Breed commercial popcorn characteristics into orange lines.

EDUCATION

Communicate scientific aspects of the project to inspire and inform the public/prospective students.

Phenotypes

Homozygous recessive (pr1/pr1) results in a pink or orange color

Heterozygotes (pr1/Pr1) exhibit a red color

Homozygous dominant (Pr1/Pr1) also results in a red color

pr1 Genotyping

  1. DNA was first extracted from popcorn lines of interest.
  2. Two sets of DNA primers were then used to amplify the region associated with the pr1 gene.
  3. A sample of PCR products were run on a agarose gel to determine allele type.
  4. Chosen popcorn line DNA was then sent to the UIUC Core Sequencing Facility for Sanger Sequencing.
  5. Sequencing data was analyzed in Sequencer to further investigate alleles of the pr1 gene. 

Breeding scheme

As mentioned before we want to breed commercial popcorn characteristics into orange lines so they actually pop. This is done by having the orange/red line serve as the mother, and white popcorn as the father. Since most of the pigmented endosperm is maternally derived, orange/red lines serve as the mother.

After each generation the most orange kernels were selected to continue (backcrossed to the White Popcorn)

2017: Apache Red (F) X White Popcorn (M)

2018 BC1: F1 (F) X White Popcorn (M)

2019 BC2: F2 (F) X White Popcorn (M)

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