Grain Quality Enhancement of North Dakota Corn Using Sixteen Adapted Diverse Populations.

Ethanol and its by-products have been an important concern in ND recently. Diverse germplasm pool is a potential source to explore favorable genes including grain quality traits for corn improvement. Sixteen diverse populations adapted to ND were used in diallel mating design following Gardner and Eberhart Analysis II. Genetic parameters were estimated to devise appropriate breeding strategies to improve these populations as source of new early maturing inbred lines with good grain quality. Data were generated in partially balanced single lattice experiments across ND locations in 2010 and 2011. Analysis of variance showed significant differences among genotypes. Genotypes were partitioned to determine the variation associated to variety and heterosis effects. Variety effects were significantly different for all traits. Heterosis and specific heterosis were also significantly different for yield, moisture, earliness, protein content and oil content. Cysteine content showed significant difference for heterosis. Non-additive gene effects are assumed to influence these traits for the set of genotypes. Six populations showed favorable variety effects from various traits. Four population hybrids with good performance per se and specific heterosis were identified. Recurrent selection programs will be established for the selected populations and population hybrids for yield and grain quality traits to integrate pre-breeding with cultivar development. The use of genetically broad-based populations provided adequate genetic variability to explore favorable genes as competitive sources for the next generation of healthier corn products.