Additive and Non-Additive Effects on the Control of Key Agronomic Traits in Popcorn Lines under Contrasting...

Area of Science:

• Agricultural Science
• Plant Breeding
• Genetics

Background:

• Phosphorus (P) is a finite, non-renewable resource critical for agriculture.
• Improving nutrient use efficiency in crops is essential for sustainable food production.
• Popcorn (Zea mays everta) is a globally important crop requiring efficient P utilization.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the inheritance of phosphorus (P) use efficiency in popcorn.
• To analyze additive and non-additive gene effects on grain yield (GY), popping expansion (PE), and popcorn volume per hectare (PV) under varying P availability.
• To identify strategies for breeding P-efficient popcorn genotypes.

Main Methods:

• Diallel analysis (Griffing method) was employed.
• Six S7 popcorn lines with contrasting P use efficiency were crossed with 15 progenies from recurrent selection.
• Experiments were conducted under different phosphorus (P) availability conditions in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Main Results:

• Phosphorus use efficiency showed predominantly additive gene effects for popping expansion (PE).
• Non-additive gene effects were significant for grain yield (GY) and expanded popcorn volume per hectare (PV).
• Specific lines were identified as efficient or inefficient in P utilization.

Conclusions:

• Breeding for P-efficient popcorn should leverage additive gene effects for popping expansion (PE).
• Exploiting heterosis in crosses with parents contributing to additive gene accumulation for PE is recommended.
• Understanding gene action is key to developing sustainable popcorn varieties.