A total of 13 maize populations from the drought-tolerant mini core collection from Maize Research Institute gene bank were evaluated for oil, protein, and tryptophan contents, fatty acid (FA) composition, and kernel characteristics. All accessions are high oil (5.8-7.9%) and protein (10.58-12.45%) genotypes. Most of the accessions showed high contents of tryptophan (0.070-0.081%) and saturated (12.65-17.91%) and monounsaturated (24.19-45.52%) FAs. Significant positive correlations were found between oil and protein and between oil and tryptophan contents (p < 0.01). Correlations between oil and principal FA were non-significant. Several accessions showed multiple nutritional advantages. For example, IP6428 had high oil (7.3%), tryptophan (0.081%), and saturated FA (17.9%) contents. Moreover, a positive correlation (p < 0.01) between palmitic (13.68%) and oleic (34.74%) acids enables the use of IP6428 for developing lines high in these FAs. Because drought-tolerant accessions were selected in both subtropical and temperate zones, they could be used for breeding value-added maize adapted to both environments.

Breeding program aimed at converting standard maize inbred lines to their quality protein maize (QPM) counterparts for growing in temperate climate is being conducted at Maize Research Institute (MRI). The objective of the research presented herein was to develop QPM versions of two commercial ZP inbreds through marker assisted selection (MAS) with opaque2 specific molecular markers, while maintaining their good agronomic performances and combining abilities. Donor line was a tropical QPM line CML 144. After two backcross and three selfing generations, six near isogenic lines (NILs) with 93% recovery of the recurrent parent genome were created from one cross. Average increments of 30% in tryptophan content and 36% in quality index were obtained, as well as kernels with less than 25% opaque endosperm. Grain yield was increased by 11–31% and combining abilities of the improved lines were on a par with the original line. Correlations between biochemical and agronomic parameters revealed that selection for plant height, ear length and kernel row number together with tryptophan content could be recommended for development of QPM with this material. However, several impediments emerged during selection. Major drawbacks in NIL development were small number of opaque2 recessive homozygotes (4.5% and 7.6% in BC2F2 of two crosses) and poor seed set throughout selection, which led to the loss of one cross. Moreover, in the other cross many plants in different generations had to be omitted from further selection due to the insufficient number of kernels. This phenomenon could be explained by incompatibility between pollen and style, possibly due to the exotic donor germplasm. Overall, it could be expected that the use of NILs, which are adapted to temperate climate and have high percentage of domestic germplasm, would outbalance the noted impediments and increase MAS efficiency in different breeding programs.

Aim of this investigation was to determine the effects of herbal drugs such as garlic, black pepper and hot red pepper in broiler chicken nutrition on carcass primal cuts quality. Total of 1200 one-day old Hubbard broilers were totally randomly distributed into eight dietary treatments with four replicates each. Chicks were fed with three dietary mixtures: starter, grower and finisher. Dietary mixtures in the experiments were as follows: T1 (Control diet), T2 (Garlic powder 0.5 g/100g), T3 (Garlic powder 1.0 g/100g), T4 (Black pepper powder 0.5 g/100g), T5 (Black pepper powder 1.0 g/100g), T6 (Hot red pepper 0.5 g/100g), T7 (Hot red pepper 1.0 g/100g ) and T8 (Mixture of spices in ratio of 1:1:1 in total amount of 0.5 g/100g). Addition of herbal drugs had significant (p<0.05) influence on carcass quality of broiler chickens. The highest achieved body weight of chicken was in treatment T6 (2460.6 g) which was followed by treatment T7 (2442.4 g) with statistically significant differences (p<0.05) compared to other treatments. The primal cuts of the most economically important value such as drumsticks with thighs had the highest weights in treatments T7 (530.7 g), T6 (525.2 g), T2 (520.2 g) and T8 (497.1 g), with statistically significant differences (p<0.05) compared to treatments T4, T5 and T1 (438.5 g, 448.7 g and 461.1 g). When it comes to a share of primal cuts in a ready-to-grill carcass weight, significant differences were not observed (p>0.05), while significant differences in the share of wings and beck (p<0.05) were recorded under the influence of added herbal drugs. It can be concluded that the addition of garlic, black pepper and hot red pepper in broiler chicken nutrition showed positive influence on chicken carcass quality.

Maize protein is deficient in two essential amino acids, lysine and tryptophan. Naturally occurring opaque2 (o2) mutation which increases the levels of tryptophan and lysine in the grain also confers an undesirable phenotype leading to low yields and more susceptible, soft and chalky kernels. Quality Protein Maize (QPM) is agronomically acceptable and nutritionally improved opaque2 maize. Marker assisted selection increases reliability and efficiency, reduces time and costs taken to obtain QPM. The results presented in this paper are a part of the Maize Research Insitute project on conversion of normal maize lines to QPM lines adapted for growing in temperate regions trough marker assisted backcross (MAB). Genetic and biochemical variability was analyzed between normal (ZPL 5) and QPM (CML 144) parental inbred lines and the efficiency of the three opaque2 specific SSR markers was examined. Markers phi057 and umc1066 can discriminate homozygous and heterozygous backcross progeny, thus can be used as foreground selection markers for the opaque2 gene. The genetic similarity between analyzed lines was 0.05, which confirmed good selection of parental lines for the creation of hybrids. Tryptophan content was 0.093 and QI was 0.85 in CML 144, approximately twice as high compared to 0.054 and 0.48 in ZPL 5. Both tryptophan and QI values for CML 144 were above the QPM treshold, i.e. tryptophan for 24% and QI for 0.625%, making it a suitable donor line of o2. These results represent the framework for marker assisted introgression of the quality protein trait into local maize genotype. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. TR31068: Improvement of maize and soybean characteristics by molecular and conventional methods]

Maize (Zea mays L.) landraces are an important source of genes for improving commercial germplasm. Today, drought tolerance and grain quality are major challenges in maize cultivation due to climatic changes and population growth. The Maize Research Institute genebank has a drought tolerant collection, which includes 13 landraces (from the former Yugoslavia) and 12 introduced populations (from different countries). These accessions were analyzed for protein, oil, starch and tryptophan contents, in order to identify drought tolerant accessions with high grain quality. Also, simple sequence repeat (SSR) analysis with specific primers for opaque2 recessive allele (o2)