Evaluation of morphological and kernel micronutrient traits in maize landraces

Abstract

Maize grains contain high level of carotenoids and tocopherols compared with other cereals. Among carotenoids the β-carotene has the highest activity and is considered important in breeding programs of biofortified crops. Changes in carotenoids content in the maize grain could be influence of genotype x environment interaction, or effect of existing relationship between the color of the endosperm and the presence of carotenoids. This research was performed to estimate differences in morphological traits, grain content of tocopherols (α-, β+γ-, δ-), β-carotene, lutein and zeaxantin in local and introduced populations from Maize Research Institute "Zemun Polje" gene bank. Micronutrient content was detected by using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Coefficient of variation for morphological traits was less than 10%, except for grain yield per plant which vary about 18,6%. α-tocopherol content was in the range from 1.04-8.42 μgg -1 DW, and β-carotene content varied from 0.26 to 7.95 μgg -1 DW. δ-tocopherol was in significant correlation with number of kernels per row (r=0.700***), and β+γ-tocopherol was in significant negative correlation with plant and ear height (r=-0.601***; r=-0.591**). Correlations between morphological traits and α-tocopherol were weak and without significance. Kernel color was significantly correlated with the content of zeaxantin (r=0,590***) and β-carotene (r=0,398*). For biofortification purposes a pool of 11 landraces with increased content of both, β-carotene and α-tocopherol, will be created based on obtained results.

Differences in nutritive and bioactive compounds content between hybrid and open-pollinated maize varieties

“…Although there are differences in physical and bio-chemical grain traits among modern maize hybrids, variation in these traits is substantially smaller compared to variation found in landraces and OP varieties. In the study of Anđelković et al (2016), in the grain of 29 maize landraces, β-carotene content, by which the maize is generally poor, varied from 0.0 to 7.95μg/g.…”

“…The contemporary trends are directed at scanning genetic resources with the aim to identify genotypes of improved grain quality for human consumption and for industrial processing, in order to incorporate them into breeding programmes. Studies on landraces and OPVs as dynamic populations, with distinct identity, high genetic divergence and adaptation to local agro-ecological conditions showed that variations in physical and biochemical characteristics of grain are notably greater compared to those found among modern maize hybrids (Žilić et al, 2012;Anđelković et al, 2016). This certainly makes them interesting not only from the aspect of breeding, but also for their use for special purposes (Vančetović et al, 2017).…”