Diversity Assessment of the Montenegrin Maize Landrace Gene Pool Maintained in Two Gene Banks

Abstract

Due to the loss of agro-biodiversity, there is a strong effort to find apparent and efficient mechanisms for the conservation and sustainable use of genetic diversity. A joint monitoring of the diversity and collections structure of the Montenegrin maize landraces conserved in the Serbian (MRIZPGB) and Montenegrin (MGB) gene banks has been conducted in order to improve the composition of the collections and to identify and eliminate possible redundancy. Based on a separate analysis of white- and yellow-orange maize landraces, it can be concluded that the diversity and evolution of distinct maize landraces grown and collected in Montenegro have been simultaneously shaped by both environmental (i.e., natural selection) and socially driven factors (farmers’ selection, migration and colonization processes of the human population). Although it has been determined that the authenticity and variability of the Montenegrin maize landraces gene pool have largely been preserved in the MRIZPGB collection, a significant amount of redundancy was observed. The obtained results will contribute to the cost-efficient conservation of the maize gene pool in the Montenegrin and Serbian gene banks. The recognized and well-preserved original variability of the MRIZPGB and MGB Montenegrin gene pool represents a valuable source for pre-breeding activities on broadening the white and flint maize breeding programmes under temperate conditions.

Identification of New Sources for Earliness and Low Grain Moisture at Harvest through Maize Landraces’ Test-Cross Performance

“…An assessment of the genetic diversity that exists in the available germplasm is fundamental for the improvement of cultivated species to ensure continuous and long-term progress in breeding, thus meeting the new market requirements and increasingly frequent challenges in crop growth conditions [4,5]. The direct incorporation of genetic resources in breeding programmes is inefficient, due to difficulties in gathering all the desirable characteristics in a small number of generations while maintaining all the positive characteristics of the elite material.…”