Biotech Studies 1996, Vol 5, Num, 2

EVALUATION OF EARLY GENERATION (S2) TEST CROSSES OF SELFED MAIZE LINES (Zea mays L.)

Bülent SAMANCI 1 , Mehmet BAŞBAĞ 2

- The mating of S2 plants to a tester for evaluation of combining ability is a technique widely used in hybrid breeding program. The high yielding S2 test crosses would be expected to have high yield progeny of later generation of selfing. In this study, S2 progeny 10 crossed to B73 tester (an inbred line) and lines 5 and 14 crossed to RD5560 (an inbred line) had the highest yield with a mean of 9.28, 9.10 and 9.03 Mg/ha, respectively. These lines will be retained for additional inbreeding and progeny with inferior testcross performance will be discarded. It will be expected that in later generations of selfing of these high yielding lines themselves will make high yielding hybrids when crossed to each other. Keywords : Zea mays L.;selfing; early generation