{{Short description|Type of field corn}} {{Infobox cultivar | name = Waxy corn | image =220px<br/>220px | image_caption = '''Top:''' Lagkitan corn, an heirloom waxy corn cultivar from the Philippines;<br/>'''Bottom:''' Chal-oksusu, an heirloom waxy corn cultivar from Gangwon, South Korea | species = ''Zea mays'' L. var. ''ceratina'' | origin = Southeast Asia, East Asia }} '''Waxy corn''' or '''glutinous corn''' is a type of corn characterized by its sticky texture when cooked. It has big round kernels that have endosperms that are almost universally white, though the aleurone layers can sometimes be purple or red which cause some cultivars to be multi-colored or even deep purple to black.<ref name="Brewbaker">{{cite book |last1=Brewbaker |first1=James L. |last2=Martin |first2=Ian |editor1-last=Janick |editor1-first=Jules |title=Plant breeding reviews: Volume 39 |date=2015 |publisher=Wiley Blackwell |location=Hoboken, NJ |isbn=9781119107712 |page=133 |chapter=Breeding Tropical Vegetable Corns}}</ref><ref name="Pangestu"/>
Waxy corn is absent in the Americas and is believed to have originated from a single chromosomal mutation soon after the introduction of corn to Asia from the Americas. They include a large number of genetically diverse cultivars from various countries that have adapted to a wide range of tropical to temperate environments.<ref name="Brewbaker"/> It is common throughout Southeast Asia (the Philippines, eastern Indonesia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Myanmar) and East Asia (China, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea)<ref name="Saikaew">{{cite journal |last1=Saikaew |first1=Kawinchaya |last2=Lertrat |first2=Kamol |last3=Meenune |first3=Mutita |last4=Tangwongchai |first4=Ratchada |title=Effect of high-pressure processing on colour, phytochemical contents and antioxidant activities of purple waxy corn ( Zea mays L. var. ceratina ) kernels |journal=Food Chemistry |date=March 2018 |volume=243 |pages=328–337 |doi=10.1016/j.foodchem.2017.09.136|pmid=29146345 }}</ref><ref name="Bon">{{cite journal |last1=Bon |first1=Sancho G. |last2=Huelgas |first2=Visitacion C. |last3=Beltran |first3=Arn Kristina M. |title=Prevalence, Provenance Distribution and Variation in The Variety Names of Philippine Traditional Corn Germplasm |journal=Philippine Journal of Crop Sciences |date= December 2022 |volume=47 |issue=3pages=49–59 |url=https://www.cabidigitallibrary.org/doi/pdf/10.5555/20230192007}}</ref><ref name="Pangestu">{{cite journal |last1=Pangestu |first1=Dimas Agung |last2=Sutjahjo |first2=Surjono Hadi |last3=Ritonga |first3=Arya Widura |title=Genetic and morphological diversity of various corn lines for the determination of waxy corn (Zea mays var. ceratina) parents |journal=Biodiversitas Journal of Biological Diversity |date=6 November 2023 |volume=24 |issue=10 |doi=10.13057/biodiv/d241046|doi-access=free }}</ref>
The stickiness of waxy corn cultivars is the result of the presence of larger amounts of amylopectin starch in contrast to regular corn (which has larger amounts of amylose starch).<ref name="Brewbaker"/>
The Ac/Ds transposable controlling elements, where short sections of DNA have an intrinsic property to move within the genome, were first isolated and sequenced using insertions of ''Ac'' and ''Ds'' into the well-studied waxy corn ''Waxy'' (''Wx1'') gene in 1983.<ref name="Federoff83">{{cite journal | vauthors = Fedoroff N, Wessler S, Shure M | title = Isolation of the transposable maize controlling elements Ac and Ds | journal = Cell | volume = 35 | issue = 1 | pages = 235–42 | date = November 1983 | pmid = 6313225 | doi = 10.1016/0092-8674(83)90226-x | doi-access = free }}</ref> Transposable elements and their behaviour i.e., "jumping genes" had previously been characterised in maize and published by Barbara McClintock in 1947,<ref name="McClintock47">{{cite journal|last=McClintock|first=Barbara |year=1947|title=Cytogenetic studies of maize and Neurospora|journal=Carnegie Inst. Washington Year Book|volume=46|pages=146–152}}</ref><ref name="McClintock49">{{cite journal|last=McClintock|first=Barbara |year=1949|title=Mutable loci in maize.|journal=Carnegie Inst. Washington Year Book|volume=48|pages=142–154}}</ref> leading to her 1983 Nobel Prize in Medicine.
==See also== * Amylomaize high amylose maize starch * Waxy potato starch * Glutinous rice
==References== {{reflist|colwidth=35em}}
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Category:Vegetables Category:Maize varieties Category:Starch Category:Edible thickening agents