Epistasis Activation Contributes Substantially to Heterosis in Temperate by Tropical Maize Hybrids.

ABSTRACT: Epistasis strongly affects the performance of superior maize hybrids. In this study, a multiple-hybrid population, consisting of three hybrid maize sets with varied interparental divergence, was generated by crossing 28 temperate and 23 tropical inbred lines with diverse genetic backgrounds. We obtained 1,154 tested hybrids. Among these tested hybrids, heterosis increased steadily as the heterotic genetic distance increased. Mid-parent heterosis was significantly higher in the temperate by tropical hybrids than in the temperate by temperate hybrids. Genome-wide prediction and association mapping was performed for grain weight per plant (GWPP) and days to silking (DTS) using 20K high-quality SNPs, showing that epistatic effects played a more prominent role than dominance effects in temperat

SUBMITTER: Sang Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9313604 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature