Evaluation of some promising maize crosses for their genetic behavior in some important traits [electronic resource].

Includes references.

The nature of gene action for yield and its components was studied in four populations of white maize (Zea mays L.). Six populations (P1, P2, F1, F2, BC1 and BC2) of four promising crosses among five inbred lines for each cross were evaluated for silking date, plant height, ear height , number of kernels/row, number of rows/ear, ear length, ear diameter and grain yield/plant through two successive seasons. These crosses were Sd-7 x Sd-34, Sd-7 x L-7041, Gz-628 x L-8084 and L-7041 x L-8084. The results obtained revealed the presence of highly significant differences among crosses as well as populations within each cross with respect to all the studied traits. Furthermore, crosses and populations within crosses interacted significantly with years for all the studied traits. This finding detected that these crosses and their populations gave different performances in different years for the studied traits. In addition, the results showed that the non-additive genetic variance including dominance play the major role in the genetic expression of these traits. Also, the results indicated that most of the studied traits were significantly influenced by one or more types of epistatic gene effect, which included additive x additive (aa), dominance x dominance (dd) and additive x dominance (ad) gene effects as appeared in the four crosses for yield and other traits, indicating the role of non-allelic interaction in the genetic expression of studied traits. From the previous results, it could be concluded that the production of hybrids is the best breeding program for the improvement of maize with respect to the studied traits.

Summary in Arabic.

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