Genetic Studies On Main Nutrient Quality Characters And Seed Dormancy In Maize (Zea Mays L.)

Nutrient quality characters plays an important role and these are troubles must be solved in maize breeding. Seed dormancy is also an important trait in breeding of maize, because it is associated with preharvest sprouting(PHS) which severely limits maize breeding study and application in many areas. Some genetic studies were developed in order to investigate the genetic basis of these two characters and make preparation for the study afterwards. Thirteen inbred lines were used in incomplete diallel crosses (7X6) to analyze genetic effect of main nutrient quality characters in normal maize. In this study, inheritance of seed dormancy of the cross R08×A318(Zea mays L.) was detected by applying the major gene plus poly-gene model of quantitative traits to a joint analysis of multi-generations (P₁, P₂, F₁, B_1:2, B_2:2 and F_2:3). And seed dormancy QTL of maize were detected by CIM method, using F₂ population and F_2:3 family. The distribution of seed dormancy QTL in genome of maize was compared with that of rice and wheat by public database. The major results are as follows.1, The results indicated that main nutrient quality characters were controlled by embryo, endosperm, cytoplasmic and maternal genetic effects. There's not too much difference between genetic effects of these four main nutrient quality characters. The embryo genetic effect was all represented as embryo additive effects of protein, starch and oil content. Endosperm effect of these main nutrient quality traits were all represented as endosperm dominance effect and maternal additive effect was more important than maternal dominance effects. Predicted genetic effects showed that inbred lines 9636, 99s2041-l-l-l and 478 were better than other parents, their genetic effects could have effects on the improvement of main nutrient quality characters in normal maize. Correlation analysis...