Carlos Eduardo Prado Leite

Evaluation of maize core collection for drought tolerance

The maize genebank (GBmaize) preserves nearly 4,000 accessions for conservation and use. The use is however restricted because the accessions do not perform as well as the elite genotypes. This problem can be reduced by pre-breeding, i.e., by extending the information on germplasm and introgressing useful alleles. Since irregular rainfall distribution and drought induce maize yield losses, drought tolerance is a main breeding target. In this study, the GBmaize accessions were evaluated for drought tolerance. Environmental factors, genotypes and the respective interactions influence the phenotypic expression. There was however no interaction genotype - irrigation level, so no accessions with different performance under the two water regimes could be identified. The performance of the following accessions was promising for a number of traits: SP154, BA166, MG099, CE002, SE025, BA154, BA194, BA085, MG076, PR053, Roxo Macapa, SE016, and AL018.

Pré-melhoramento de milho quanto à resistência a enfezamentos

The objective of this work was to select maize families derived from backcrossing between the composite NAP Corn Stunt (donor parent) and inbreed lines (recurrent parents), as to grain yield and resistance to corn stunt, and to evaluate the efficiency of the use of molecular markers in the phenotypic evaluation for the selection of genotypes with high grain yield. One hundred genotypes were evaluated in five environmental conditions in the 2009/2010 crop season. We selected RC1F2 families, which combine high grain yield present in the recurrent parents to resistance to corn stunt present in the donor parent. The selected maize families for agronomic performance and resistance to corn stunt were: L228-3-324-S, L228-3-237-R, L228-3-109-R, which were indicated for crosses with lines of the flint heterotic group; and L3-422-R and L3-586-R, which were indicated for crosses with lines of the dent heterotic group. For selecting genotypes with high grain yield, the molecular marker-assisted selection is not efficient for the recovery of the recurrent parent genotype, when compared to the phenotypic evaluation.

COMPORTAMENTO DE HÍBRIDOS DE MILHO SELECIONADOS E NÃO SELECIONADOS PARA ASI SOB ESTRESSE DE ÁGUA NO FLORESCIMENTO E NO ENCHIMENTO DE GRÃOS

Com o objetivo de verificar se a posicao da semente na espiga afeta diferentemente a produtividade e outros caracteres da planta e se essa diferenca pode ser ampliada por meio de ciclos seletivos, foi conduzido o presente trabalho. Para isto, na safra 1995/1996, foram semeadas, em lote isolado, cerca de 3.000 plantas da populacao CMS-39 e, por ocasiao da colheita, tomadas 300 espigas ao acaso. De cada espiga, foram coletadas sementes das extremidades e, posteriormente, as sementes da ponta de cada espiga foram misturadas e o mesmo foi realizado com as sementes da base. Esse procedimento foi repetido de modo analogo por cinco ciclos seletivos. As dez subpopulacoes, cinco da ponta e cinco da base, foram avaliadas em experimentos conduzidos nas safras 2000/2001 e 2001/2002. O delineamento utilizado foi o de blocos casualizados, com seis repeticoes, segundo esquema de parcelas subdivididas. Os tratamentos nas parcelas foram os cinco ciclos seletivos e, nas subparcelas, a origem das sementes, ponta ou base. Foram considerados os caracteres numero de dias para o florescimento masculino e feminino, altura de espiga e produtividade de graos. Constatou-se que a origem da semente da ponta ou da base nao alterou a expressao de varios caracteres avaliados e nao foi possivel, com a precisao experimental obtida, detectar efeito da selecao indireta para o vigor de polen pela posicao dos graos na espiga, em todos os caracteres considerados.

BRS Cipotânea and BRS Diamantina: maize varieties

The maize cultivars BRS Cipotânea and BRS Diamantina were developed from accessions of the Maize Germplasm Bank of Embrapa Maize and Sorghum. The evaluation was participative, performed by scientists and end-users. The varieties were developed to provide farmers with maize varieties suitable for corn-husk crafts.