(Radio Iowa) – An Iowa State University professor’s research is part of a large, federally funded project to improve the quality of sweet corn. Alan Myers is a professor of biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology at Iowa State. His research is focused on how carbohydrates are stored in sweet corn kernels. “What I look at directly is the synthesis part,” Myers says, “the growth of the kernel from when it’s first fertilized from pollen and egg into making the mature kernel that we chomp down on when we bite down on an ear of corn.”

Field corn that’s fed to livestock or converted into ethanol has starch granules that make the kernels grainy and really hard. “Those things don’t exist or there are a lot fewer of them in sweet corn varieties,” Myers says. “…That gives it the taste and mouth texture that people like to eat when they eat good, fresh sweet corn.” The carbohydrates Myers is studying give sweet corn kernels that soft and creamy texture.

“And when people bite into it, it tastes good,” Myers says. The I-S-U laboratory that Myers leads and another lab in Ames that’s focused on speeding up development of hybrid varieties are splitting 800-thousand dollars in federal funding for corn-related research over the next four years. It’s part of a project involving researchers in other parts of the country with the goals of boosting the sugar content and improving the shelf life of sweet corn.

The project is being coordinated by the University of Florida. About 20 percent of the sweet corn grown in the U.S. comes from Florida — making it the top sweet corn producing state.