Abstract
Pollen effect is important on several kernel traits in maize breeding and may vary under different pollination treatments. Our objectives in this study were i) to evaluate the effects of pollination treatments that are commonly used in maize breeding, on several ear and kernel traits, ii) to investigate if the genotypes so called “specialty corn” do have any different reaction to the pollen effect. A field trial was carried out at Dardanos Research and Application Center of Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Turkey, in 2013. The experiment used a split plot design with three replicates. Four parents (three inbreds and one open pollinated landrace) were used as plant material. Three pollination treatments (open pollination, self-pollination and bulk pollination) were applied, and individual pollen effect of each parent on other parents was investigated. For this purpose, several ear and kernel traits (ear weight, kernel weight, kernel number, mean kernel weight) and biochemical features (protein, oil, carbohydrate and carotenoid content) were measured on harvested samples.The results showed that pollination treatment affected the variation on all traits except for oil content (P < 0.05). Self-pollination caused a significant reduction in kernel development. Pollen effect was found significant for most traits and this effect was evident on the related genotypes with open pollinated landrace. Results indicate that pollen effect is an important factor on kernel and ear development in small plot trials, where different types of maize are grown together.
Highlights
The results showed that pollination treatment affected the variation on all traits except for oil content (P < 0.05)
Some studies concluded that pollen parent had no significant impact on protein content (Gilbert 1960; Letchworth & Lambert 1998), whereas, some others showed the lysine and tryptophan content in maize were affected by the pollen source (Pixley & Bjarnason 1994)
Open pollination produced higher ear weight, kernel number and total kernel weight compared to the artificial pollination methods
Summary
The results showed that pollination treatment affected the variation on all traits except for oil content (P < 0.05). “Pollen effect” refers to the changes in female parent’s phenotype caused by the pollen source (Focke1881) It has been well studied in maize and shown to be the cause of important differences in various traits, such as oil content, protein content, fatty acid composition and embryo/seed ratio (Letchworth & Lambert 1998; Tsai & Tsai 1990; Weingartner et al 2004; Dong 2007; Tanaka et al 2009). Selfing is accomplished by transferring the collected pollen from tassel to ear (pre-covered) in a controlled manner (Abdin et al 1979) This method causes negative effects on many traits, known as inbreeding depression (Öz & Tuğay 2003). Earlier studies exploring the effects of pollen and/or pollination treatment on the maize genotypes generally used a certain type of plant material, such as inbreds and hybrids. Evaluation of the traits rarely examined in previous studies, such as carotenoid content, could provide new findings about the pollen effect in maize
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