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The
only genetic difference between sweet corn and field corn is that
in sweet corn one gene for the metabolism is modificated (in this
case recessive).
When
the reserve material is deposited in the nutritive tissue, sugars
are produced in the first step, which are then transformed into
starch. The sweet corn or sugary gene (su1) slows down this process,
i. e. the sugar production continues, the content of sugar increases
as a consequence of the slow transformation into starch, and thus
the milky kernel has a distinctly sweet flavour.
When
sweet corn is intercrossed with field corn, the "correct" gene in
standard corn suppresses this characteristic completely, even if,
as explained above, the sugar gene su1 exists in duplicate form.
Geneticists call this a dominant hereditary process.
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