Estimating Breeding Value of Agro-biological Traits in Maize Using IRAP and REMAP Markers

Maize is the third most important cereal after wheat and rice in the world and is a major seed source for many people in Africa, Latin America and Asia. Knowledge on function and extent of genes effect is one of the necessities to achieve high yielding cultivars. In this regard, molecular marker technology has eliminated the need to know the pedigree of genotypes for estimating the kinship matrix to evaluate genotypes breeding values. In this research, 97 genotypes of maize were evaluated in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with 6 replications for agronomical traits. In the molecular experiment, the molecular profiles of the genotypes were prepared with 28 pairs of Inter-retro transposon amplified polymorphism (IRAP) and Retro transposon-microsatellite amplified polymorphism )REMAP( primers. Estimation the breeding valueofstudied traits in maize genotypes was done through the best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP) in the mixed linear model framewo rk by integrating molecular data based calculated kinship matrix. Considering the sum of estimated breeding values ranks for the studied traits, genotypes P3L11, P10L9, P9L6, P19L5 Kahia and (Paternal) OH43 / 1042 had the highest ranks. Positive breeding value shows that these genotypes have the greatest potential in transmitting the value of traits to the next generation. Genotype P14L2 with positive and high breeding value for leaf length, leaf area, cob weight and leaf area index and P16L6 Kahia with positive and high breeding value for plant height to cob height, cob length and grain weight in the plant, can be introduced as desirable parents to improve these traits in maize breeding programs.