Abstract:
Quality Protein Maize (QPM) is the modified version of maize lines introgressed with opaque-2
gene along with numerous modifiers for kernel hardness to quench its earlier pleiotropic effects,
including low nutritive value of endosperm protein. In the present investigation we reported the
effect of recurrent parent genome on the quality of protein in QPM lines developed through
marker assisted backcross breeding (MABB). Two generation MABB program for incorporation
of the opaque-2 gene along with phenotypic selection for kernel modification in the background
of normal maize inbred lines Pant11R 126, Pant 11R 128 and Pant 11R 53 using CIMMYT lines
as donor parents namely CML 162 and CML 189 resulted in development of paired crosses
among polymorphic lines at opaque-2 locus. BC2F2 seeds with >25 % opaqueness were selfed
and the protein and tryptophan concentration in endosperm protein of BC2F3 lines was reported
to lie in the range of 8.23-9.16 % and 0.075-0.096 % respectively. As evident from the results
there was a significant effect of background found on the converted QPM lines. |
