Introduction of exotic germplasm into the Institute's maize breeding program

Petrovic, Z.

Introduction of exotic germplasm into the Institute's maize breeding program

2002

Petrovic, Z.

Four exotic maize populations were studied and tested in this thesis in order to determine how they can be introduced into our adapted breeding material. Two inbred lines, the parental components of the adapted hybrid NSSC 640, were used as testers (T1 = male component, T2 = female component). The results were processed by the Nested design analysis of variance and the parameters of genetic variability and phenotypic, genetic and rank correlations were calculated. The following traits were analyzed: plant height, ear height, ear length, number of grain rows per ear, 100-grain mass, and yield per plant. The progeny of the exotic populations exhibited a significant level of variability for all the traits concerned except for the number of grain rows per ear. The same ranking of heritability values was found within the populations for all the traits. The lowest value was that for ear height, followed by plant height, grain yield per plant, grain mass and ear length, while the highest variability was found for the number of grain rows per ear. The results of yield analysis in Pop3 clearly identify certain families from the third and fourth sets as suitable for backcrossing with the T1 tester. Components of yield and grain yield per plant do not offer a clear picture about the heterotic character of this population relative to the tester. For a better definition of Pop4, testing with testers of different origin than T1 and T2 is required.

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