Combining ability of early-maturing quality protein maize inbred lines adapted to Eastern Africa

In spite of the importance of quality protein maize to alleviate protein deficiency, almost all maize varieties cultivated in Ethiopia are normal maize varieties, which are devoid of lysine and tryptophan. Perusing the combining ability of QPM inbred for grain yield and its components is vital to design appropriate breeding strategies for the development of nutritionally enhanced maize cultivars. A line x tester analysis involving 36 crosses generated by crossing 9 elite maize inbred lines with 4 testers were evaluated for different desirable agronomic traits during the 2019 main season at BNMRC and JARC. The experiment was conducted using alpha lattice design with 3 replications. The objectives were to determine the combining ability of quality protein maize inbred lines, adapted to mid altitude agroecology of Ethiopia for agronomic traits. The crosses were evaluated in alpha lattice design replicated 3 times. Analyses of variances showed significant mean squares due to crosses for almost all the traits studied. GCA mean squares due to lines and testers were significant (P<0.05 or P<0.01) for most studied traits. SCA mean squares were also significant for most attributes across locations. The comparative importance of GCA and SCA variances observed in the current study for most studied traits indicated the preponderance of additive genetic variance in governing these attributes. Only L3 was the best general combiner for grain yield. Inbred line L3, for days to anthesis and L5 for days to silking had negative and significant GCA effects. L5 and L6 displayed negative and significant GCA effects for plant and ear height. Crosses, L2xT4, L3xT4, L4xT4, L5xT2, L6xT3, L7xT2, L9xT1 and L9xT4 were good specific combiners for grain yield. In general, these genotypes help as a source of promising alleles that could be used for forthcoming breeding work in the development of quality protein maize cultivars with desirable traits.

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Performance of provitamin A- quality protein maize inbred lines and derived hybrids in contrasting environments

10.21203/rs.2.10201/v1 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Ebenezer Obeng-Bio ◽

Baffour Badu-Apraku ◽

Beatrice Elohor Ifie ◽

Agyemang Danquah ◽

Essie Blay ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Grain Yield ◽

Central Africa ◽

Inbred Lines ◽

Provitamin A ◽

Quality Protein Maize ◽

Whole Grain ◽

Maize Inbred Lines ◽

Early Maturing ◽

West And Central Africa ◽

The Relationship

Abstract Background Early maturing provitamin A (PVA) quality protein maize (QPM) inbred lines with tolerance to drought and low-N are needed to develop superior hybrids in West and Central Africa (WCA). This study aimed to (i) identify inbred lines that combined drought and low-N tolerance with increased levels of PVA and tryptophan and (ii) assess the relationship among PVA carotenoids, tryptophan and grain yield. Sixty-four inbred lines plus six inbred checks were evaluated under induced drought, low-N and optimal conditions in 2016 and 2017 in Nigeria. The inbred lines were assayed for PVA and tryptophan contents. Results Thirty-three of the lines were found to be tolerant to drought and low-N. Ninety percent of the inbred lines had tryptophan contents > 0.075 % per sample in whole grain substantiating the presence of the QPM trait in the inbred lines. Inbred lines TZEIORQ 55 and TZEIORQ 29 combined high PVA contents (15.38 and 12.10μg g-1, respectively) with low-N tolerance while nine inbred lines combined moderate PVA levels (5.06 – 8.34μg g-1) with drought and low-N tolerance. Conclusions These maize inbred lines could be utilized to develop superior drought and low-N tolerant hybrids and synthetics with elevated levels of PVA and tryptophan for WCA. The correlations observed among grain yield, PVA and tryptophan of the lines were not significant suggesting that these traits could be improved independently.

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