Breeding potential of early-maturing flint maize germplasm adapted to temperate conditions

J.I Ruiz De Galarreta,A Álvarez

doi:10.5424/sjar/2010081-1145

Abstract

Early-maturing flint maize germplasm could be an important alternative for the development of new early-maturing commercial hybrids adapted to cooler summer regions. Our objective was to evaluate the performance of flint populations in crosses with four testers from different heterotic groups, as sources of new potential inbred lines. Ten flint maize populations were crossed to four inbred testers representing Reid Yellow Dent, Lancaster Sure Crop and two Spanish flint heterotic groups. Topcrosses were evaluated in four environments in north eastern Spain in 2001 and 2002. The main type of gene action expressed was additive. All populations except Enano Norteño/Vasco and Hembrilla Norteño/Vasco, had a higher specific combining ability in crosses with Reid Yellow Dent or Lancaster Sure Crop testers. Average yields were better when populations were crossed with dent lines rather than with the flint inbred line EP42. These results could be useful in the development of new inbred lines that would increase genetic variability present in commercial European flint maize.

Highlights

The development of successful maize hybrids requires the establishment of heterotic patterns, defined as the cross between known genotypes that express a high level of heterosis (Carena and Hallauer, 2001)
The objective of this work was to evaluate the performance of a group of 10 flint maize populations in crosses with four testers belonging to different heterotic groups, as sources of new potential inbred lines
The factor of the combined analyses due to General combining ability (GCA) of the populations was significant for all traits, while the GCA of testers was significant at P ≤ 0.01 for early vigour and grain moisture

Summary

Introduction

The development of successful maize hybrids requires the establishment of heterotic patterns, defined as the cross between known genotypes that express a high level of heterosis (Carena and Hallauer, 2001). The Reid × Lancaster cross is a common scheme used in hybrid production for Spain and other areas of southern Europe. Most varieties of cultivated maize in southern Europe are single crosses between European flint and United States dent germplasm, which combine early vigour, earliness, resistance to stem lodging and resistance to drought stress of European inbreds with the high grain yield of American inbreds (Ordás, 1991). Flint kernels have a better ability than other kind of maize kernels for the development of high-quality flour. These combinations permitted the expansion of hybrid maize into central Europe

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