Genetic analysis of drought adaptive traits in maize synthetic populations

Abstract

Maize breeders consider tolerance to drought as an important criterion in commercial breeding programs. Two traits, stay green and anthesis-silking interval seem to be closely associated with drought tolerance. The main objective of this study was to obtain estimates of means, variability, heritability and estimates of genetic correlations for several traits in two maize synthetic populations. S1 progenies were evaluated in an incomplete block design in four environments. Large genetic variability existed for all traits in both populations but highest variability was found for anthesis-silking interval. Strong, highly significant correlations between drought adaptive traits and grain moisture may cause some undesirable correlative response throughout cycles of selection.

Oplemenjivači kukuruza smatraju tolerantnost prema suši jednim od najznačajnijih kriterijuma u komercijalnim oplemenjivačkim programima. Čini se da su dva svojstva, zakašnjenje u svilanju i stay green tesno povezani sa tolerantnošću prema suši. Cilj ovog rada bio je da se odrede srednje vrednosti, varijabilnost, heritabilnost i genetičke korelacije za nekoliko svojstava u dve sintetičke populacije kukuruza. Vrednosti S1 potomstava ocenjivane su u nepotpunom blok dizajnu na četiri lokaliteta. Utvrđena je zadovoljavajuća varijabilnost svih svojstava u obe populacije, a najveća za zakašnjenje u svilanju. Visoko signifikantne korelacije između svojstava tolerantnosti prema suši i sadržaja vlage u zrnu mogu biti uzrok nepoželjnih korelativnih odgovora kroz cikluse selekcije.