1-2 IAN No Steroid Corn

Female only corn and I’m not talking about women dining on kernels, I’m talking female corn in the fields. According to a Purdue University researcher, farmers would do well if all their corn crops were Snookie sized and ladies only.  Hi, I'm David Sparks, and new findings show that if we can control a natural plant steroid hormone in corn, we can minimize land use and fuels while growing this important crop.  But before you go out and paint your tractor pink and pipe in the Oprah Network to your fields, the scientists still have a lot of work to do.  

 Science Daily reports that a Purdue University researcher has taken corn off steroids and found that the results might lead to improvements. Assistant professor of horticulture, Burkhard Schulz wanted to understand the relationship between a natural plant steroid hormone -- and plant height. He thought corn could benefit by becoming shorter and sturdier. Schulz found that when maize loses the ability to produce brassinosteroids, it becomes a dwarf. But another feature caught him off guard: The plants without the naturally occurring steroids could not make male organs -- they had kernels where the tassels should be. Again, they require less land to grow.