Korean Journal of Agricultural Science ISSN:2466-2402(Print) 2466-2410(Online) 농업과학연구

The aleurone layer in maize is crucial as it contains essential nutrients such as minerals, vitamins, and high-quality proteins. While most of the maize varieties are known to possess a single aleurone layer, several multi-aleurone layer mutants and landraces have been suggested for hierarchical genetic control of aleurone development. Conventional microscopy analysis often involves using immature seeds or sampling only a portion of the kernel sample, and whole kernel section analysis using a microtome is technically difficult and timeconsuming. Additionally, the larger size of maize kernels posed challenges for comprehensive cross-sectional analysis compared to other cereal crops. Consequently, this study aimed to develop an efficient method to comprehensively understand the aleurone layer characteristics of the entire cross-section in maize. Through observations of diverse maize genetic resources, we confirmed irregular aleurone layer patterns in those with multiple aleurone layers, and we discovered a landrace having multiple aleurone layers. By selectively identifying genetic resources with multiple aleurone layers, this method may contribute to efficient breeding processes in maize.