Abstract

An increase in the average global temperature and drought is anticipated in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) as a result of climate change. Therefore, early white quality protein maize (QPM) hybrids with tolerance to combined drought and heat stress (CDHS) as well as low soil nitrogen (low-nitrogen) have the potential to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change. Ninety-six early QPM hybrids and four checks were evaluated in Nigeria for two years under CDHS, low-nitrogen, and in optimal environments. The objectives of this study were to determine the gene action conditioning grain yield, assess the performance of the early QPM inbred lines and identify high yielding and stable QPM hybrids under CDHS, low-nitrogen and optimal environment conditions. There was preponderance of the non-additive gene action over the additive in the inheritance of grain yield under CDHS environment conditions, while additive gene action was more important for grain yield in a low-nitrogen environment. TZEQI 6 was confirmed as an inbred tester under low N while TZEQI 113 × TZEQI 6 was identified as a single-cross tester under low-nitrogen environments. Plant and ear aspects were the primary contributors to grain yield under CDHS and low-nitrogen environments. TZEQI 6 × TZEQI 228 and the check TZEQI 39 × TZEQI 44 were the highest yielding under each stress environment and across environments. Hybrid TZEQI 210 × TZEQI 188 was the most stable across environments and should be tested on-farm and commercialized in SSA.

Highlights

  • Maize (Zea mays L.) is an economically important annual cereal crop that is predicted to become the most important cereal crop in the world by 2025 [1]

  • Very low heritability estimates were obtained for grain yield, anthesis and silking interval, and stay green characteristic of the quality protein maize (QPM) hybrids under low-nitrogen and tassel blasting under combined drought and heat stress (CDHS) environments suggesting that selection based on phenotypic expression of these traits would be ineffective in achieving significant genetic gains

  • The implication is that yield of maize hybrids under low-nitrogen and optimal environment conditions could be enhanced through recurrent selection and that inbred lines tolerant to low-nitrogen with high combining ability effects could be extracted from improved cycles of selection for hybrid development

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Summary

Introduction

Maize (Zea mays L.) is an economically important annual cereal crop that is predicted to become the most important cereal crop in the world by 2025 [1]. The current global yield of maize is about 1.1 billion tons and production is projected to increase to over 1.4 billion tons by 2030 [1,2]. It is estimated that 50% of the total population of West and Central Africa (WCA) depends on maize as a staple food while a large proportion of the maize produced annually is used as raw materials for various alcoholic beverages, poultry and the livestock industries [3,4]. As a staple food crop of the sub-region, maize plays an important role in combating malnutrition. Studies by Akuamoah- Boateng [7] on infants fed with

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