Two F2 populations segregating for biomass yield and forage quality traits were developed from two separate crosses of tropically adapted maize inbred lines. The parental, F1 and F2 generations of both crosses were evaluated to estimate broad sense heritability, genetic advance and correlations for these traits to suggest the best traits as selection criteria towards breeding forage maize with high yield and quality.In Cross 1, biomass yield trait with the highest broad-sense heritability was plant height (70.03%), whereas forage quality trait with the highest heritability estimate was crude protein content (66.60%). Heritability estimates in Cross 2 were high for all biomass yield traits and forage quality traits (>50% for all traits). Indigestible cell wall component represented by acid detergent lignin content was found to be highly heritable in both populations. High genetic advance as percent of mean were found for fresh and dry plant yield as well as for lignin content in both populations. Correlation analysis on all traits showed that all biomass yield components were significantly correlated. All traits related to cell wall content were positively correlated and acid detergent lignin was positively correlated with dry plant yield. Traits with high to moderate heritability and high predicted genetic advance, namely plant height, fresh plant yield and protein content can be used as selection criteria to improve maize biomass yield and nutritive quality for forage utilization. Selecting for higher biomass yield would also result in selecting individuals with higher lignin content as shown by the correlation analysis.
Genetic diversity and phenotypic superiority are important attributes of parental inbred lines for use in hybrid breeding programs. In this study, genetic diversity among 30 maize (Zea mays L.) inbred lines comprising of 28 introductions from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), one from Indonesia and a locally developed, were evaluated using 100 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers, as early screening for potential parents of hybrid varieties. All markers were polymorphic, with a total of 550 unique alleles detected on the 100 loci from the 30 inbred lines. Allelic richness ranged from 2 to 13 per locus, with an average of 5.50 alleles (na). Number of effective alleles (ne) was 3.75 per locus, indicating their high effectiveness in revealing diversity among inbred lines. Average polymorphic information content (PIC) was 0.624, with values ranging from 0.178 to 0.874, indicating high informativeness of the markers. High gene diversity was observed on Chromosomes 8 and 4, with high number of effective alleles, indicating their potential usefulness for QTL analysis. The UPGMA dendrogram constructed identified four heterotic groups within a similarity index of 0.350, indicating that these markers were able to group the inbred lines. The three-dimensional PCoA plot also supports the dendrogram grouping, indicating that these two methods complement each other. Inbred lines in different heterotic groups have originated from different backgrounds and population sources. Information on genetic diversity among the maize inbred lines are useful in developing strategies exploiting heterosis in breeding programs
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