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Effect of Mass Selection and Thermal Neutron Irradiation on Genetic Variances in a Variety of Corn (Zea mays L.)¹

Two samples of ‘Hays Golden’ variety of corn have undergone 6 generations of mass selection for yield. One sample had been subjected to thermal neutron irradiation of the seed at generation 0 and generation 2. Sixty-four half-sib families each consisting of 4 full-sib families were produced in the original variety and in each of the 2 mass selected populations to study the changes in genetic variability which may have resulted from the selection practiced.

The 6 generations of mass selection for yield resulted in signficant increases in productivity in each of the 2 populations with no decline in additive genetic variability. The population derived from seed treated with thermal neutron irradiation and mass selected for yield of grain exhibited appreciably higher additive genetic variance than the original variety. Indications point to continued expected gains from selection of the type practiced.

² Howard S. Wilson Professor of Agronomy, formerly Rockefeller Foundation Fellow, and Professor of Agronomy, University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

Received for publication January 21, 1966.