Vol. 12, Issue 3 (2023)

Author(s):
Munnesh Kumar, JP Shahi, Ashok Singhamsetti, Anima Mahato, Kumari Shikha and Kartik Madankar

Abstract:
Maize (Zea mays L., 2n =20), an economic crop, is a widely cross-pollinated annual, monoecious Poaceae family member native to Mexico and Central Africa. All twenty characters studied showed dominance gene action, except for traits like ear diameter and moisture content. The number of gene groups varied from one to six. Gene groups were involved and showed partial or over-dominance. Based on GCA and SCA studies, two good general combiners are identified as HKIPC-7 and WINPOP-29. Specific combiners for yield and popping characteristics are the WINPOP-47×HKIPC-7 cross for yield per plant, the WINPOP-8×HKIPC-7 and WINPOP-3×HKIPC-7 crosses for earliness and also the WINPOP-47×HKIPC-5 cross for popping expansion. G×E interaction is clearly indicated as narrow sense heritability is less than unity. In either the pedigree method or the bulk method, it is best to choose parents with dominant alleles for traits that affect yield.