Heterosis level of maize hybrids developed using DNA technologies

Abstract

The performance of maize hybrids developed on the basis of recombined inbred lines (RIL) selected from an F2 hybrid population using marker-assisted selection (MAS) was studied. The task was to estimate the efficiency of DNA marker technology for intrapopulation selection and to study the performance of hybrids produced from marker-derived inbreds of the F2 population (GK 26 × Mo 17). Two hundred RILs of marker origin were crossed with 3 unrelated testcross lines from the Lacaune, Mindszentpuszta and Reid heterotic groups. An effective marker test system and informative marker criteria were elaborated for increasing MAS effectiveness. A two-locus system on the basis of linked SSR markers proved to be the most effective. The genetic improvement effect (ΔG) of the C1 population for plant productivity, plant height and grain length ranged from 9.1 to 16.1%, depending on the phenotypic trait and h2 level. The best hybrids developed on the basis of RILs of marker origin outyielded the national check for grain yield by 6.8-7.6%.