Combined Dominance and Additive Gene Effects in Trait Inheritance of Drought-Stressed and Full Irrigated Popcorn

Valter Jário De Lima,Marcelo Moura Chaves,Samuel Henrique Kamphorst,Uéliton Alves De Oliveira,Lauro José Moreira Guimarães,Jhean Torres Leite,Gabriel Moreno Bernardo Gonçalves,Shahid Khan,Antonio Teixeira Do Amaral Júnior,Talles De Oliveira Santos,Rosimeire Barboza Bispo,Kátia Fabiane Medeiros Schmitt,Pedro Henrique Araújo Diniz Santos

doi:10.3390/agronomy9120782

Valter Jário De Lima, Marcelo Moura Chaves + Show 11 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy9120782

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Abstract

To define breeding strategies, the understanding of trait inheritance is critical. The objective of this study was to determine the inheritance of popcorn under different water regimes. To this end, Hayman’s diallel methodology was used, with 8 parents and 28 hybrids. The experiment was carried out under well-watered conditions (WW) and water stress (WS). For popping expansion (PE) under both water regimes, the effects of complete dominance and greater importance of the components associated with the dominance effects were observed. In contrast, the number of dominant genes was zero and the determination coefficient in the narrow sense was >50%; additive effects were also present. For the number of grains per row (GR), ear length (EL), and grain yield (GY) under WS and WW conditions, the dominance effects were the most relevant, and the mean degree of dominance with overdominance effects and greatest relevance of the components associated with this effect were also observed. The same breeding methods can be applied under the studied WS and WW conditions. Exploiting heterosis for GY and related components is a promising way to adapt popcorn to WS. To be able to capitalize on additive and dominance effects, a reciprocal recurrent selection is recommended.

Highlights

Of all environmental stresses, drought causes the greatest losses in global agricultural production [1,2,3,4].In response to the severe effects of this abiotic stress on plant growth and development, breeding is an effective tool to reduce the vulnerability of crops [5]
This set of parents were selected in this way to meet the assumptions of allelic symmetry for grain yield under drought stress, as defined by the methodology of Hayman [12]
Based on the results found for popping expansion (PE), both additivity and dominance effects are present in the trait

Summary

Introduction

Drought causes the greatest losses in global agricultural production [1,2,3,4].In response to the severe effects of this abiotic stress on plant growth and development, breeding is an effective tool to reduce the vulnerability of crops [5]. Abiotic stresses are deleterious environmental influences on the plant life cycle and affect crop growth and structure development, preventing the expression of the full genetic potential [9] In this sense, water stress causes physiological and biochemical disturbances in plants, which can result in reduced leaf expansion and metabolic cell activity, stomatal closure, photosynthesis inhibition, and changes in carbon partitioning, among others, reducing yields [9,10]. Understanding the genetic basis of agronomically and economically important traits is one of the initial phases of breeding programs for higher yields in water-stressed environments In this sense, diallel crosses have been widely used for parent selection and the study of the genetic mode of action (additive or non-additive effects) under full irrigation and water stress conditions [2,11]. For specialty maize types, such as popcorn, studies addressing drought adaptation [8] or analyses of the gene action in the control of the relevant crop traits are even rarer

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