Is colored corn a genetically modified product? Agriculture expert: it's actually a hybrid

Because of its good taste, colored corn has become the new favorite on the dining table of Urumqi citizens. Recently, however, it has been caught up in some rumors of genetically modified crops, for which agricultural experts say that colored corn is only a hybrid variety and has nothing to do with genetically modified crops.

On September 9, the reporter visited the Laobeiyuan Spring vegetable Wholesale Market, Nanliangpo Farmer's Market, and some fruit stores in Urumqi City, and found that in addition to ordinary pure white and pure yellow corn on the market, there are pink and yellow, purple and yellow, black and yellow colored corn and fruit corn.

In front of a vegetable store on Nanchang Road, all kinds of corn are placed on wooden boards to attract visitors. The selling prices vary from 5 yuan to 5 yuan, 5 yuan to 5 yuan and 6 yuan to 6 yuan, depending on the color.

The boss, Tu Jianjun, said that colored corn, which went on sale in August, is sweeter than ordinary corn and can sell 200 to 300 pieces a day.

Ma Suzhen, who is selecting white corn, said that fruit corn and colored corn are genetically modified, or don't worry about eating the most common white and yellow corn.

Jiang Lu of the Old Beiyuan Spring vegetable Wholesale Market has been wholesale selling fruit corn and colored corn in recent years. She says that the colored corn and fruit corn sold at retail in the capital market are all grown in Anning Canal, Xishan, Wujiaqu, Changji and other places.

With regard to the concerns of the public, Fang Bo, a senior agronomist at the Urumqi Agricultural Technology extension Center, said that colored corn, sweet corn and waxy corn in the capital market are naturally produced through conventional cross breeding.

According to Fang Bo, when planting colored corn, attention should be paid to hybridization, such as four rows of white corn, one line of purple corn, or three rows of yellow corn and one line of pink corn, and the row spacing must be within the range of pollination. After this collocation, when the corn is pollinated, all kinds of corn can begin to pollinate each other and eventually grow into colored corn.

Ma Miao, a professor of botany at the School of Life Sciences at Shihezi University, said that the colored grains of fresh sweet and waxy corn inherit and maintain the plant genetic diversity that already exists in nature through natural selection and hybridization; the color is affected by its own carotenoids and anthocyanins.

It is understood that hybridization is generally the conversion between the same crop, which is a kind of genetic recombination in the process of natural growth of crops. Transgenic is to change a pair of genes of the original organism through artificial technology. After hybridization, the appearance and taste of crops will change, while genetically modified crops will not show any change in appearance.