QUALITY PARAMETERS AND POTENTIALS OF UTILIZATION OF DIFFERENT MAIZE HYBRIDS FOR FOOD AND FEED

Quality parameters of six maize hybrids created at the Maize Research Institute Zemun Polje were investigated in this study. Physical properties, kernel structure, and chemical composition of one yellow dent standard and five specialty maize hybrids of different grain color were analyzed. Whole-grain maize flour is naturally gluten-free which makes it suitable for persons suffering from celiac disease. Fiber, protein, and oil make maize grain an essential component for animal feed production. All maize hybrids showed favorable processing and nutritive characteristics which make them highly suitable for different uses.

Stability of yield and seed composition in early maturing soybean genotypes assessed by AMMI analysis

Identification of stable sources for breeding for important agronomic traits is prerequisite for providing a continuous and long-term progress in breeding. In this study, thirty-one early-maturing genotypes from soybean collection of Maize Research Institute ?Zemun Polje? were evaluated across four environments (two years and two locations) according to randomized complete block design with three replications. The aim of research was to examine the value of the interaction of genotype and environment for three important agronomic traits (seed yield, protein content and oil content) using anadditive main effects and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) statistical model, and to identify stable sources for breeding for listed traits. The results of the research indicated that all traits were strongly influenced by environmental factors, while the influence of genotype and particularly interaction of genotype and environment was of less importance. AMMI analysis enabled identification of genotypes with above average value and high stability for seed yield (three genotypes), protein content (three genotypes) and oil content (two genotypes), which could be utilized as potential stable sources of variability in future soybean breeding programs.

Development of late temperate in vivo haploid inducers

In vivo doubled haploid technique has been widely used in advanced maize breeding programs due to cost, labor and time advantages and increase in efficiency. However, the number of available inducer lines in the world is sufficient. Six BC1 breeding populations including RWS and RWK-76 haploid inducer lines and late temperate ADK-451, ADK-737 and ADK-455 lines were developed by Sakarya Maize Research Institute (MRI) in Turkey. The RWS and RWK-76 haploid inducer lines were used as donors. Pedigree method was employed to develop the inducer lines. Anthocyanin coloration of plant, tassel length, branch number of tassel, plant height, days to flowering, embryo-endosperm colorfulness and haploid induction rate (HIR) were determined. The genotypes with the best characteristics were selected. The families from BC1F3 to BC1F7 were hybridized to liguleless line to determine the HIR and families with HIR over 8% were selected from BC1 populations. The HIR, plant height and days to tassel flowering values of in-1021 and in-1076 candidate haploid inducer lines were 10.5 and 12.3%, 195 and 200 cm, and 69 and 68 days, respectively. The HIR value of RWS donor haploid inducer ranged from 8.9 to 11.3% and for RWK-76 from 7.3 to 9.8%. Simple Sequence Repeats (SSRs) markers were used to identify genetic similarity between late temperate haploid inducer lines and donors. The similarity rates of in-1021 and in-1076 inducer lines to the RWS donor were 38 and 15%, and to the RWK-76 donor were 23 and 27%. The similarity rate between the two candidate inducer lines was 30%. The results indicated that the late temperate haploid inducer lines developed will increase the efficiency of maize breeding.

Mitigating the twin problems of malnutrition and wheat blast by one wheat variety, ‘BARI Gom 33’, in Bangladesh

For the first time in history outside of Latin America, deadly wheat blast caused by the fungus <em>Magnaporthe oryzae</em> pathotype <em>triticum</em> (MoT) emerged in the 2015–2016 wheat (<em>Triticum aestivum</em> L.) season of Bangladesh. Bangladesh, a country in South Asia, has a population of nearly 160 million, of which 24.3% are classified as poor. Consequently, malnutrition and micronutrient deficiency are highly prevalent, particularly among school going children and lactating women. Bangladesh Wheat and Maize Research Institute (BWMRI), with the technical support of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Mexico, has developed and released a new wheat ‘BARI Gom 33’. The new wheat is a zinc-enriched (Zn) biofortified wheat, resistant to the deadly wheat blast disease. ‘BARI Gom 33’ provides 5–8% more yield than the check varieties in Bangladesh. Rapid dissemination of it in Bangladesh, therefore, can not only combat wheat blast but also mitigate the problem of Zn deficiency and ensure income for resource-poor wheat farmers. Importantly, a large portion of the current wheat area in India and Pakistan is vulnerable to wheat blast, due to the similarities of the agro-climatic conditions of Bangladesh. As wheat blast is mainly a seed-borne disease, a rapid scaling out of the new wheat in Bangladesh can reduce the probability of MoT intrusion in India and Pakistan, and thereby generate positive externalities to the food security of more than 1 billion people in South Asia. This study explains the development process of ‘BARI Gom 33’; the status of malnutrition in Bangladesh, and the possible economic gain from a rapid scaling out of ‘BARI Gom 33’ in Bangladesh. A few policies are recommended based on the discussions.

Breeding and agronomic approaches for the biofortification of zinc in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) to combat zinc deficiency in millions of a population: a Bangladesh perspective

The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that around 2 billion people across the globe are suffering from “hidden hunger”, where 815 million are under malnutrition. The major essential elements for humans are Fe, Zn, I, Se, Ca, F, and also vitamins. Among them, Zn is considered in the fifth place leading to causes of several deficiency diseases. At least one-third of the population in the world is facing Zn deficiency including around 450,000 children under the age of five. Vitamin A, Fe, and Zn deficiencies can be overcome through the biofortification of staple foodstuffs. This review emphasizes various breeding and agronomic approaches for the biofortification of Zn in wheat grains, which is an encouraging and cost-effective method to enhance the Zn contents of cereal grains. Recently, the Bangladesh Wheat and Maize Research Institute (BWMRI), with technical support from CIMMYT, Mexico, released a promising new Zn-biofortified wheat cultivar, ‘BARI Gom 33’, a result from a conventional breeding program. It has 32 and 50–55 mg kg⁻¹ Zn without and with soil application of ZnSO₄, respectively. This cultivar could be a savior for a million people in South Asia, including Bangladesh.

Knezha 461 - A new maize hybrid from the middle early group

The article presents the biological and morphological parameters of the new grain maize hybrid from middle early group. The hybrid is acknowledged in 2017, after three years of testing in the territorial station at Executive Agency of Variety Testing, Field Inspection and Seed Control (EAVTFISC) with standard American hybrid P 9494 and Knezha 435, a widespread Bulgarian hybrid. During the period of testing under conditions without irrigation in the experimental field of the Maize Research Institute – town of Knezha the three years average of the new hybrid exceeded the standard P 9494 by 7.4%, and Knezha 435 by 8.6%. In the ecological network of the country in 2011, under conditions without irrigation, the hybrid produced grain yield 2.6% above the foreign and 4.7% above the Bulgarian standard. In 2016 at EAVTFISC the Knezha 461 maize hybrid exceeded by average grain yield the P9494 standard by 1.5%. The testing was conducted at four points under non-irrigated conditions. The moisture content in the harvesting time is near to that of P9494 and lower than the moisture of Knezha 435. The new high-yielding and competitive hybrid Knezha 461 supplies deficiencies in the middle early group of Bulgarian hybrids, where the foreign ones take prevalence.

DNA and biochemical analysis of a potential opaque2 maize population

Maize has low nutritional value because it is poor in essential amino acids lysine and tryptophan, but different mutations have been identified that increase their content. Two high lysine/tryptophan populations from Maize Research Institute genebank (IP1 and IP2) were identified in a previous research. In both populations, analysis with umc1066 opaque2 specific marker detected a recessive (o2), a dominant (O2) and an unknown allele (UA). However, IP2 lacked homozygous recessive o2o2 genotypes. The aim of the present research was to determine by DNA and biochemical analysis if UA allele was a recessive allele and/or if high tryptophan content was due to the o2 or some other mutation. Tree more opaque accessions with different mutations - IP3o5, IP4o14 and IP5floury (no data on type of mutation) were used in biochemical analysis for comparison with IP1 and IP2. Kernels were divided into two samples - with hard and with soft kernels. The UA allele sequencing revealed that it was a dominant allele with four GCCAGA repeats. SSR analysis showed presence of o2 in IP1 in both hard and soft kernels. Decrease in 22 kDa, 19 kDa and 27 kDa zeins in soft kernels was observed only in IP1 and IP2. Tryptophan content was high in soft kernels of IP1 (0.081) and IP2 (0.085), and in both hard and soft kernels of IP3o5 (0.083 and 0.085, respectively). It can be concluded that IP1 is an o2 mutant and that IP2 carries a high tryptophan mutation other than o2, o5, o14 or floury.

Disruption of genetic identity for genebank maize accessions during conservation

Maintenance of the original accessions identity and integrity is one of the priorities among genebank activities. Different factors related to conservation may result in accessions disruption. Regeneration is the most frequent critical point in this process, due to bottlenecks, inbreeding, random genetic drift and unintentional mixing or contamination. On the other hand, genetic drift may occur due to seed viability loss. Therefore, it is very important to establish the balance between the frequency of regeneration and the duration of accession conservation. The aim of the present study was to estimate whether the identity of accessions regenerated after 27 years of medium-term conservation was disrupted. Phenotypic markers were applied on three Maize Research Institute ?Zemun Polje? (MRIZP) genebank maize landraces (K2026, K768 and K86), differing in seed viability, kernel type and effective population size. It was estimated that, after the regeneration, there had been no significant changes in the landrace K2026. There were some parameters indicating that genetic drift had occurred in the landrace K768, and that there had been even a certain degree of inbreeding in the landrace K86. According to the results, accession K2026 could still be kept under the same ID number. Due to the genuine identity disruption, assignment of new ID numbers for K768 and K86 should be suggested.

A simple ssr analysis for genetic diversity estimation of maize landraces

A collection of 2217 landraces from western Balkan (former Yugoslavia) is maintained at Maize Research Institute Zemun Polje gene bank. Nine flint and nine dent accessions from six agro-ecological groups (races), chosen on the basis of diverse pedigrees, were analyzed for genetic relatedness using phenotypic and simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. One of the aims was to establish a reliable set of SSR markers for a rapid diversity analysis using polyacrilamide gels and ethidium bromide staining. In the principal component analysis (PCA) the first three principal components accounted for 80.86% of total variation and separated most of the flint from dent landraces. Ten SSR primers revealed a total of 56 and 63 alleles in flint and dent landraces, respectively, with low stuttering and good allele resolution on the gels. High average PIC value (0.822) also supports informativeness and utility of the markers used in this study. Higher genetic variation was observed among flint genotypes, as genetic distances between flint landraces covered a larger range of values (0.11- 0.38) than between dent (0.22 - 0.33) genotypes. Both phenotypic and SSR analyses distinguished flint and dent landraces, but neither of them could abstract agro-ecological groups. The SSR method used gave clear, easy to read band patterns that could be used for reliable allele frequency determination. Genetic diversity revealed for both markers indicated that the landraces were highly adapted to specific environmental conditions and purposes and could be valuable sources of genetic variability. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. TR31028: Exploitation of maize diversity to improve grain quality and drought tolerance] . <br><br><font color="red"><b> This article has been corrected. Link to the correction <u><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.2298/GENSR1602801E">10.2298/GENSR1602801E</a><u></b></font>