Journal Article
Performance and grain yield stability of maize populations developed using marker-assisted recurrent selection and pedigree selection procedures
Yoseph Beyene; Kassa Semagn; Stephen Mugo; Boddupalli M. Prasanna; Amsal Tarekegne; John Gakunga; Pierre Sehabiague; Barbara Meisel; Sylvester O. Oikeh; Michael Olsen; Jose Crossa
Euphytica · Vol. 208, Issue 2 · pp. 285-297 · 2016
Abstract
A marker-assisted recurrent selection (MARS) program was undertaken in sub-Saharan Africa to improve grain yield under drought-stress in 10 biparental tropical maize populations. The objectives of the present study were to evaluate the performance of C 1 S 2 -derived hybrids obtained after three MARS cycles (one cycle of recombination (C 1 ), followed by two generations of selfing (S 2 ), and to study yield stability under both drought-stress (DS) and well-watered (WW) conditions. For each of the 10 populations, we evaluated hybrids developed by crossing 47–74 C 1 S 2 lines advanced through MARS, the best five S 5 lines developed through pedigree selection, and the founder parents with a single-cross tester from a complementary heterotic group. The hybrids and five commercial checks were evaluated in Kenya under 1–3 DS and 3–5 WW conditions with two replications. Combined across DS locations, the top 10 C 1 S 2 -derived hybrids from each of the 10 biparental populations produced 0.5–46.3 and 11.1–55.1 % higher mean grain yields than hybrids developed using pedigree selection and the commercial checks, respectively. Across WW locations, the best 10 hybrids derived from C 1 S 2 of each population produced 3.4–13.3 and 7.9–36.5 % higher grain yields than hybrids derived using conventional pedigree breeding and the commercial checks, respectively. Mean days to anthesis of the best 10 C 1 S 2 hybrids were comparable to those of hybrids developed using the pedigree method, the founder parents and the commercial checks, with a maximum difference of 3.5 days among the different groups. However, plant height was significantly (P < 0.01) different in most pairwise comparisons. Our results showed the superiority of MARS over pedigree selection for improving diverse tropical maize populations as sources of improved lines for stress-prone environments and thus MARS can be effectively integrated into mainstream maize breeding programs.