Quality Protein Maize: An Investigation for Identification of Heterotic Hybrids for Grain Yield and Important yield Component Traits

Author: Arjun Kumar Agarwal, Devraj Lenka, Digbijaya Swain, Barsha Rani Barik, Ankita Mishra and Swapan Kumar Tripathy

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Abstract

Maize is a highly cross pollinated crop. Heterosis breeding is the most widely accepted breeding method for enhancing yield potential in the crop. But, development of a truly potential heterotic hybrid requires identification of a specific cross combination that exhibits maximum hybrid vigour. Therefore, a study was conducted on F1 population of 28 crosses generated by half diallel mating of 8 QPM inbred lines during Kharif -2020. These crosses were evaluated in a Randomised Block Design with three replications to estimate average heterosis, heterobeltiosis and standard heterosis for twelve morpho-agronomic traits including grain yield. For all the characters, analysis of variance revealed that the mean sum of squares owing to genotype is highly significant. The most significant positive average heterosis and heterobeltiosis for grain yield were recorded in the cross DQL 2159 (Q3) × 70160 (Q5), followed by the crosses DQL 2221-1-1(Q4) × 70160 (Q5) and DQL 2099 (Q2) × 70160 (Q5). The

Keywords

Average heterosis, heterobeltiosis, standard heterosis, quality protein maize (QPM)

Conclusion

Now-a-days, cultivation of hybrids is gaining futuristic importance. Therefore, exploring a truly heterotic hybrid in a mating design is an important part of hybrid development. The present investigation revealed majority of the crosses with positive significant average heterosis, heterobeltiosis, and standard heterosis for yield and important yield attributing traits, suggesting dominance nature of genes with positive effect. Besides, a number of crosses showed favourable heterotic behaviour with negative heterosis for maturity-related characteristics indicating that the genes with negative effects were dominant for these traits. A few superior F1 hybrids were sorted out with higher degrees of heterosis for a number of important yield contributing traits. The top three selected crosses based on standard heterosis included Q1 × Q5, Q2 × Q7 and Q1 × Q6 for grain yield. These crosses may be considered as heterotic QPM hybrids for commercial cultivation.

References

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How to cite this article

Agarwal, A.K., Lenka, D., Swain, D., Barik, B.R., Mishra, A. and Tripathy, S.K. (2021). Quality Protein Maize: An Investigation for Identification of Heterotic Hybrids for Grain Yield and Important yield Component Traits. Biological Forum – An Internati