In this study, 14 agricultural and phenotypic traits were used to analyze morphological variations among 10 near-isogenic lines (NILs) of colored waxy maize and 2 parental lines (HW3 and HW9) of the hybrid cultivar “Mibaek 2.” The results of principal component analysis indicated that on the first principal component axis, seed coat color, R value, V value, days of tasseling, L* value, and days of silking greatly contributed to the positive direction, whereas anthesis–silking interval and leaf width greatly contributed to the negative direction. On the second principal component axis, kernel row number and tassel color contributed to the positive direction, whereas setted ear length, ear length, and 100-kernel weight contributed to the negative direction. Thus, the morphological characteristics that greatly contributed to the first and second principal components might be useful for discrimination among the 10 NILs and 2 parental lines of “Mibaek 2.” Of the 10 NILs analyzed, 16CLP26 and 16CLP16 were considered useful breeding material for the development of colored waxy maize varieties with relatively high amounts of yield and anthocyanin. Collectively, these results are expected to provide useful information for the development and selection of lines for breeding colored waxy corn varieties at the Maize Research Institute, Gangwon-do Agricultural Research and Extension Services.

Maize is the most important grain crop in the world. Genetic engineering technology has been used to enhance its various agronomical traits. The transformation of maize is a crucial step in the application of gene technologies to improve maize. The choice of genotype and explant material influences the transformation efficiency and the production of stable transgenic plants. Immature embryos of Hi IIA were infected with Agrobacterium tumefaciens LBA4404 including superbinary vectors (bar and GUS or GFP genes). The transformation efficiency was based on transgenic calli induction from immature embryos on the selection medium with 3 mg/L bialaphos. The transformation efficiency varied from 1.01 to 2.74%. The integration and expression of bar, GUS, and GFP genes were confirmed in T₀ and T₁ generations of transgenic plants using genomic PCR and the bar strip test. In addition, herbicide resistance in T₁ transgenic plants was observed when leaves and whole plants were treated with Basta. These results suggest that the successful Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of Hi IIA will improve further opportunities for functional genomic and genome editing studies in maize.