FATTY-ACID COMPOSITION OF OIL FROM EXOTIC CORN BREEDING MATERIALS

The fatty acid composition of corn oil can be altered to meet consumer demand for ''healthful'' fats. The first step in altering the oils is to survey existing corn breeding materials for fatty acid composition . The Latin American Maize Project (LAMP), an international program de signed to evaluate the agronomic characteristics of maize accessions i n Latin American and U.S. germplasm banks for future use, provides use ful starting materials. LAMP was based on the cooperative efforts of 1 2 countries. In a two-stage evaluation, the project identified the hig hest-yielding open-pollinated top 20% of populations, then approximate ly the top 5% of those 20%. Twenty of the populations from four countr ies with temperate climates were randomly selected for fatty acid anal ysis. The populations were from United States, Chile, Argentina, and U ruguay. Fifty S-1 lines from each population were randomly chosen for analysis for a total of 1,000 genotypes sampled. Statistical differenc es in fatty acid composition were computed among the 20 populations an d among the four countries. The findings showed a wide range of fatty acid profiles present in unadapted, elite corn breeding materials with ranges for each fatty acid as follows: palmitic acid, 6.3-18.2%; stea ric acid, 0.9-4.5%; oleic acid, 18.5-46.1%; linoleic acid, 36.6-66.8%; linolenic acid, 0.0-2.0%; and arachidic acid, 0.0-1.4%. Several popul ations were significantly different from the others. Some lines had un usual fatty acid compositions, including one with 8.3% total saturates and another with 20.2% total saturates. This study shows that existin g corn breeding materials could be used to produce high- and low-satur ate oils, but other methods would probably be required to produce a hi gh-oleic corn oil.