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Selection for Grain Yield following Selection for Ear Height in Maize

Dep. of Plant and Soil Science, Univ. of Tennessee, P.O. Box 1071, Knoxville, TN 37901-1071

^* Corresponding author.

Recurrent selection improves population performance by increasing the frequency of favorable alleles. In maize (Zea mays L.), the higher frequency of favorable alleles in a population is expected to result in improved performance of inbred lines and hybrids derived from the population. This study was conducted to evaluate the responses to four cycles of selection for grain yield, after 10 cycles of selection for ear height. During selection for reduced ear height, grain yield had declined 29%. Tennessee Late Low-Ear synthetic cycle 10 was used to initiate S₁ and testcross (TC) selection for grain yield. Individual plants were selfed and crossed to a single cross for TC selection, or selfed only for S₁ selection. Ten progenies were selected from 100 evaluated in yield trials, and remnant S₁ seed were intermated to complete each cycle of selection. Response to selection for grain yield was evaluated for each cycle of selection as random-mated, bulk inbred, and hybrid populations at two locations for 2 yr. The response to S₁ selection was a 44% yield increase after four cycles, and TC selection resulted in a 21% yield gain in random-mated populations. Hybrid and inbred yields were also increased by selection, but the gains were less than for random-mated populations. Ear height increased 8% in Cycle 1 of selection for yield, but did not change in later cycles. Four cycles of recurrent family selection restored grain yield to approximately the level of the population before selection for low-ear placement.

Received for publication May 7, 1992.