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Molecular Plant Breeding 2013, Vol.4, No.6, 44
-
49
http://mpb.sophiapublisher.com
44
Research Report Open Access
Heterosis Breeding for Maturity, Yield and Quality Characters in Maize (
Zea
mays
L.)
Netravati
1
, G.Shantakumar
1
, Sateesh Adiger
1
, Laxman malkannavar
2
,Prakash Gangashetty
1
1 Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, college of agriculture, UAS Dharwad, India
2 Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, GKVK, UAS Bangalore, India
Corresponding authors email: prakash.gangashetty@gmail.ocm
Authors
Molecular Plant Breeding, 2013, Vol.4, No.6 doi: 10.5376/mpb.2013.04.0006
Received: 16 Jan., 2013
Accepted: 23 Jan., 2013
Published: 30 Jan., 2013
Copyright: ©2013 Netravati P.I., et al. This article was first published in Molecular Plant Breeding in Chinese, and here was authorized to translate and publish
the paper in English under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article: Netravati et al., 2013, Heterosis Breeding for Maturity, Yield and Quality Characters in Maize (Zea mays L.), Molecular Plant
Breeding, Vol.4, No.6 44
-
49 (doi: 10.5376/mpb.2013.04.0006)
Abstract
The utility
of diallel crosses for identification superior combinations is a common in maize breeding programme. This
methodology allows the estimation of combining ability of the parents being evaluated also extent of heterosis in respect to maturity,
grain yield and quality traits.
The experiment conducted using fourteen newly developed inbred and crossed in half diallel mating
design (excluding reciprocals) during summer 2011 at MARS, Dharwad and developed 91 crosses. Ninety one F
1
crosses of maize
derived by diallel mating design involving fourteen inbred lines (excluding reciprocals) were studied to investigate heterosis over
best check NK 6240 for maturity characters, yield characters and quality parameters. The crosses, 13×6, 7×6, 9×6 and 13×7 showed
desirable heterosis for earliness i.e for days to 50% tasseling and for 50 % maturity. For the character grain yield per plant, crosses,
9×5, 10×7, 4×3, 8×7 and 14×10 showed significant heterosis over better parent and standard check in positive direction, these better
performing crosses/hybrids can be exploited for exploiting hybrid vigour. Crosses, 10×3, 10×9, 11×10 and 10×3, 9×3, 7×3 showed
heteosis in favourable direction over better parent and standard check.
Keywords
Maize (
Zea mays
L.); Diallel cross; Standard heterosis; Heterobeltosis; Inbred lines
Background
Maize (
Zea mays
L.; 2n=20) is the second most
important cereal of the world after wheat. By origin,
maize is native to South America and it is a tropical
crop and has adopted magnificently to temperate
environments with much higher productivity. Maize is
an important cereal crop belonging to tribe
Maydeae
of the grass family,
Poaceae
. Tribe
Maydeae
comprises eight genera, five of which are
Oriental
(
Coix
,
Schlerachne
,
Polytoca
,
Chinonachne
and
Trilobachene
) and are relatively
unimportant. They
are native to an area extending from India to Burma
through East Indies
and into Australia. The three
American genera are
Zea
,
Tripsacum
and
Euchalaena.
Euchalaena
(teosinte), which appears to be the closest
wild relative of maize, occurs
in Mexico and
Guatemala. The annual form has 10 pairs of
chromosomes like maize and is
the most common
type. Perennial teosinte has 20 pairs of chromosomes
and is found in a
restricted area in Mexico. The annual
form is used as a forage plant. The US has the largest
harvested area of corn and contribution one fifth of the
world corn harvested area. China, Maxico, India,
Brazil and Indonesia are other countries which
contribute significantly to world harvested area. These
six countries have around 60 per cent of world corn
production. Corn plays a significant role in human,
livestock nutrition and a source of large number of
industrial products world wide. Due to high yield
potentiality, versatile uses, almost year round growth
ability and higher per acre yield than other cereals,
area and production of maize is increasing day by day
in our country. Hybrid maize cultivation is also
becoming popular among the farmers. The phenol-
menon of heterosis for hybrid breeding has been
commercially exploited in cross pollinated crops like
maize, sunflower, pearl millet and sorghum. Maize is
a highly cross pollinated crop and hand emasculation
(detasseling) and wind borne pollination is used to
produce hybrid seeds on a commercial scale. The cost
of hybrid seeds at commercial scale is comparatively
low due to higher rate of successful seed setting and
large number of grains per ear. Heterosis is also e in
deciding the direction of future breeding programme
and to identify the cross combinations which are
promising for hybrid breeding programme. In the
present study, heterosis over better parent as well as
standard check (NK 6240) were estimated for grain
yield, maturity characters and quality parameters.