Validation of parents and estimation of molecular diversity through SSR markers in maize (Zea mays L.)

Abstract

India is the third largest consumer of edible oils; an increasing human population increases the demand of oil at an alarming rate. Therefore, there is a need to search new sources of oil in India to fulfill this goal. Molecular markers have facilitated the easy identification of diverse parents for development of superior high oil lines for commercial use. The parental material in the present experiment comprised of ten diverse inbred lines viz., high oil (HIGH OIL, DMHOC-09, DMHOC-15), QPM or intermediate oil (HUZQPM-01, HUZQPM-03, HUZQPM-05, HUZQPM-06) and low oil (HUZM-53, HUZM-265, HUZM-478) content containing, selected on the basis of yield, yield traits along with oil content at the Agricultural Research Farm, B.H.U., during Kharif 2011 and were subjected to validate the presence of QTL’s linked to oil content and molecular diversity through SSR markers. A total number of 25 polymorphic SSR markers were used to evaluate molecular diversity among parental inbreds. The PIC of 25 SSR primers ranged from 0.42 to 0.50 with an average PIC of 0.46. The molecular validation studies revealed that SSR markers bnlg2086, phi96100, umc1422, bnlg1452, bnlg2244, bnlg1711, umc2319, umc1360, phi119 and phi050 were linked to QTLs for oil content. Therefore, these markers could be used in MAS for estimating high oil content in maize. The markers viz., nlg2086, phi96100, umc1422, bnlg1452, bnlg2244, bnlg1711, umc2319, umc1360, phi119 and phi050 were linked with QTL’s for oil content, were amplified corresponding oil content bands in most of the high and low oil inbreds. Therefore, these markers could be used in MAS for high oil content in maize. Total twenty five polymorphic micro-satellite markers were used to evaluate molecular diversity among parental inbreds. The PIC of the 25 SSR primers ranged from 0.42 to 0.50 with an average PIC of 0.46. The clustering of all the genotypes was according to their pedigree, oil content and other morphology.