Genetic inheritance studies and early generation marker selection in maize breeding for drought tolerance
Abstract
193 words
It has been estimated that approximately US $10 billion of
primary food production is lost annually because of drought.
Interventions like irrigation are options the majority of the
smallholder farmers in sub Saharan Africa cannot afford.
However, cultivar development through breeding of drought
tolerant cultivars can be exploited to provide improved varieties
for the resource constrained farmers. This study started with a
diagnostic survey on the availability and use of drought tolerant
cultivars, and assessed farmers’ perceptions for input to
development of drought tolerant varieties for drought prone
areas in Zimbabwe and other parts of Southern Africa. Currently
genetic studies on the drought tolerant inbred lines (variances
components and heritability) are on-going while the last
component of the study is looking into the possibility of improving
efficiency and effectiveness in breeding for drought tolerance
through the use of marker assisted recurrent selection (MARS)
of secondary traits such as anthesis-silking interval (ASI), ears
per plant (EPP), biomass, leaf rolling and leaf senescence using
single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. Preliminary
results show significant differences (P<0.001) for grain yield,
anthesis-silking interval and ears per plant which are critical
secondary traits used for selection under drought stress.
Subjects
3 categoriesRelated papers
More in Working Document Series →- Detection, isolation and baseline characterization of indigenous PhlD+ fluorescent Pseudomonas species for the control of bean root rot and coffee wilt disease in Uganda
- Response of selected tomato varieties (Solanum lycopersicum) to tomato yellow leaf curl virus
- Severity expression of net blotch foliar infection as induced by initial exposure to aluminium toxicity and drought stress in barley
- Evaluation of chickpea genotypes for tolerance to ascochyta blight