English

H Tang J,M Hu Y,P Wang Y,L Wang C,W Tian G,H Liu Z

doi:10.5897/ajar11.2453

Abstract

For elucidating the genetic basis of N, P and K contents in kernels and stalks in maize under different nitrogen supply condition, a set of 203 F2: 4 / F2: 5 family lines, derived from an elite maize hybrid Nongda108, were tested under nitrogen plus (N+) and no nitrogen plus (N-) treatments in the field over two years, and a genetic linkage map was constructed with 199 SSR molecular markers, covered 2100.9 cm for 10 chromosomes with an average interval length of 10.82 cm. The results showed that low N stress not only affected N content in maize kernels and stalks, but also affected the absorption and transportation of P and K contents in some degree. A total of 34 quantitative trait locus (QTL) including 15 QTLs in kernels and 19 QTLs in stalks for N, P, K content were identified by means of the composite interval mapping method (CIM), of which, 13, 9 and 12 QTLs detected for N, P, K content, respectively. Each QTL could explain the variance of phenotype ranged in turn from 7.30 to 31.09%, 7.57 to 14.3% and 8.11 to 32.82% for three main mineral elements content. The QTL qNC4c, qPC9b, qKC10b as well as qNC4b, qPC5b, qKC6a were main contributing QTL for N, P, K contents in kernels and stalks. Out of these QTLs detected for N, P, K contents in kernels and stalks, the results also implied that the loci derived from Huang C played important roles in N, P, K absorption, while the loci from Xu178 played marked roles in N, P, K transportation from stalks to grains. Key words: Maize, low nitrogen stress, N, P, K content, quantitative trait locus (QTL), analysis.

Highlights

Nitrogen (N) fertilizer plays important roles in increasing yield and improving quality in maize production
The N content in the kernels of Huang C was decreased by 18.13 and 15.90% under N- condition compared with N+ condition in 2004 and 2005, respectively; 8.26 and 6.62% decreased in F1 while 4.83 and 8.63% increased in parent Xu178
Correlation analysis results of N, P, K contents in kernels on average of F2:4 / F2:5 populations showed that a notable positive relationship existed between N and P with r=0.229 and r=0.132 (r0.05=0.138, r0.01=0.181) under N- and N+ condition respectively, while no significant correlation had been found between N and K either under N- or N+ condition

Summary

Introduction

Nitrogen (N) fertilizer plays important roles in increasing yield and improving quality in maize production. The previous studies have demonstrated that the biomass, grain yield as well as nutrient quality for foodstuff in maize are higher under high N condition than low N condition (Agrama et al, 1999; Zhu and Chen, 2002; Aildson et al, 2005; Martín et al, 2008). Presterl et al (2003) reported that about 37% grain yield was lost under N- condition compared with N+ condition, and the agricultural and yield related traits among F2:3 families had significant genetic difference under high N (280 kg.ha-1) and low N (30 kg.ha-1) conditions (Agrama et al, 1999). For getting a high grain yield in maize production, the amount of nitrogen fertilizer input has increased gradually in recent.

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