Vol. 13, Issue 2 (2024)

Author(s):
A Chinthiya, KN Ganesan, R Ravikesavan and N Senthil

Abstract:
The narrow genetic base existing in the sweet corn limits its genetic improvement. This is associated with the fact that sweet corn does not have well defined heterotic groups as categorized in field corn. Therefore, application of marker assisted diversity analysis becomes a necessity to categorize the diverse genotypes for development of single cross hybrids or composites. Present molecular diversity analysis of sweet corn inbreds revealed that eight SSR primers were polymorphic out of fourteen SSR primers screened. The polymorphic information content (PIC) value obtained from the eight polymorphic primers ranged from 0.03 (umc2061) to 0.73 (umc1060 and umc1969). Present study revealed that umc1060 and umc1969 were the most informative SSR primers. Dendrogram constructed based on dissimilarity coefficient of sweet corn genotypes grouped the six domestic inbreds into three major clusters. Evaluation of sweet corn hybrids synthesized with diverse inbreds based on SSR markers polymorphism revealed maximum heterosis and desirable combining ability. It is evident from the best hybrid identified in the present study SC45508 (cluster II) x SC45679 (Cluster I) expressed superior heterosis over the check hybrid (Sugar75) and desirable specific combining ability for the green cob yield and quality traits.