Voichita Has

The role of cytoplasmatic diversification on some productivity traits of maize

The discovery of cytoplasmic male sterility directed scientists to focus their research on the role and influence of cytoplasmic factors on the heredity of some important agronomic traits, especially in hybrids. In this context, numerous cytolines have been created at the Agricultural Research and Development Station Turda (Romania) in order to assess if their genetic value could be due to cytoplasm diversification. Backcross was performed for ten generations in order to transfer the nucleus of the pollenator into the cytoplasm of the maternal genotype. This paper presents the results regarding yield and yield components of 100 hybrids, originated from crosses among isolines and four testers. The isolines, used as maternal genotypes, were created by transferring the nucleus of the elite inbred lines TC 209, TC 316, TC 243, TB 367 and D 105 onto the cytoplasm of T 248, TB 329, TC 177 and TC 221 inbred lines. The cytoplasms–nucleus interaction and the triple cytoplasm–nucleus–tester interaction, caused significant differentiation between the hybrids originated from cytoline maternal genotype in comparison to those from original inbred lines. Yield, thousand kernel weight, ear weight, grain weight/ear and the number of kernels/row were used for comparisons among all genotypes used into this research.