ISU professor looks to bring tropical genes to corn

An Iowa State University professor has been working to perfect the corn plant for over 40 years, and he’s turning to the tropics for new advancements. Arnold Hallauer says using tropical genes might improve corn’s performance.Hallauer is combining Iowa corn material with other material from all over the world, including Columbia, South America and Cuba.Hallauer says it’s a pretty “spotty” crop this year in Iowa, due to uneven rainfall, heat, and harmful storms.Hallauer isn’t sure when his tropical corn plants will be productive enough to be sold commercially, but he is sure he’ll be working with corn long after he retires.