Genetic analysis of prolificacy in “Sikkim Primitive”—A prolific maize (Zea mays) landrace of North‐Eastern Himalaya

• Published in: Plant breeding 2019-12, Vol.138 (6), p.781-789
• Main Authors: Prakash, Nitish Ranjan, Zunjare, Rajkumar Uttamrao, Muthusamy, Vignesh, Chand, Gulab, Kamboj, Mehar Chand, Bhat, Jayant Subraya, Hossain, Firoz
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Autosomal dominant inheritance; baby corn; Corn; Dominance; Ear; Epistasis; Genetic analysis; Genetics; Germplasm; Heredity; Hybrids; Inbreeding; landrace; maize; multiple ears; prolificacy; Quantitative inheritance; Quantitative trait loci; Rainy season; Sikkim Primitive; Zea mays
• ISSN: 0179-9541; 1439-0523
• DOI: 10.1111/pbr.12736

Prolificacy assumes significance for development of high‐yielding baby corn hybrids. “Sikkim Primitive” is a native landrace of North‐Eastern Himalaya, and is the highest prolific maize germplasm. So far, the genetics of prolificacy in “Sikkim Primitive” has not been deciphered. Here, a prolific inbred (MGU‐SP‐101) developed from “Sikkim Primitive” was crossed with four non‐prolific inbreds viz., LM13, BML7, HKI161 and HKI1128. Six generations (P1, P2, F1, F2, BC1P1 and BC1P2) of the crosses were evaluated at two locations during rainy season 2018. MGU‐SP‐101 possessed 2.50–3.78 ears per plant compared to 1.06–1.86 among non‐prolific inbreds. The variation for ears was the highest in F2s (1–8), followed by BC1P1 (1–7) and BC1P2 (1–5). The quantitative inheritance pattern of prolificacy with prevalence of non‐allelic interactions of duplicate epistasis type has been observed. Dominance × dominance effect was predominant over additive × additive and additive × dominance effects. Total number of major gene blocks ranged from 0.41 to 2.86, thereby suggesting the involvement of at least one major gene/QTL governing the prolificacy. This is the first report of genetic dissection of prolificacy in “Sikkim Primitive”.