Genetic analysis of some topcrosses of yellow maize

Abstract

Twenty elite yellow maize inbred lines were crossed as female parents with three different testers as male parents, i.e. Gem. Pop. (Broad genetic base), Single cross 101(Narrow genetic base) and Inbred line 100 (Narrow genetic base) at the Experiment Research Station of Moshtohor, Benha University, Egypt during 2014 growing summer season. The resulting 60 crosses with three commercial check hybrids i.e. SC 155, SC Pioneer 3080 and TWC 352 were evaluated in a yield trial in two sowing dates during 2015 growing summer season. The results showed that, sowing dates, crosses, lines, testers and line x testers mean squares were significant for all traits. The seven parental inbred lines (L-4, L-5, L-10, L-12, L-13, L-14 and L-19) possessed high GCA effects for grain yield and six lines (L-1, L-7, L-10, L-13, L-16 and L-18) possessed high GCA effects for earliness. These lines can be utilized as promising inbred lines in a hybridization program to develop high yielding and early maturity maize hybrids. The seven crosses (T-1 × L-7, T-1 × L-13, T-1 × L-17, T-2 × L-4, T-2 × L-5, T-2 × L-10 and T-2 × L-12) which had out-yielded significantly the best check SC. 3080 could be utilized for future breeding work as well as for direct release after confirming the stability of their performances observed in the current study. Hence, the information from this study may possibly be useful for researchers who would like to develop high yielding hybrids of maize.