Improvement of early vigor and adaptation of sweet corn to the European Atlantic coast with open-pollinated field corn populations

Sweet corn lacks early vigor and is poorly adapted to the environmental conditions of the European Atlantic coast. New sources of germplasm for improving early vigor and other agronomic traits would be useful. Environmental conditions in the Northwest of Spain, as in the European Atlantic coast, are...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Cartea González, María Elena, Malvar Pintos, Rosa Ana, Revilla Temiño, Pedro, Ordás Pérez, Amando
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:1996
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/42784
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/42784
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Maize
Sweet corn
Early vigor
Adaptation
Descripción
Sumario:Sweet corn lacks early vigor and is poorly adapted to the environmental conditions of the European Atlantic coast. New sources of germplasm for improving early vigor and other agronomic traits would be useful. Environmental conditions in the Northwest of Spain, as in the European Atlantic coast, are characterized by humid cool springs and short growing seasons. The objectives of this study were to evaluate ten field corn populations to improve the adaptability of sweet corn to the environmental conditions of Northwestern Spain, and to compare different methods of selecting donors to improve early vigor of sweet corn hybrids. Ten adapted field corn populations and their crosses with five sweet corn inbreds, and the five inbred parents and four hybrids produced among them, were evaluated at two locatioos in Northwestern Spain in 1992 and 1993. Four estimators of relative number of favorable alleles (lplµ', PTC, UBND, NI) and general combining abiliity (GCA) were calculated for evaluating field com populations as potential sources of early vigor and adaptation related traits for sweet corn. Northwestem Spanish germplasm, particularly Tuy, and EPS6(S)C2 could be useful sources of desirable alleles to improve early vigor and other agronomic traits in sweet corn hybrids. Estimators of favorable alleles of field corn populations were highly correlated. GCA was a reliable measure of usefulness for populations because sweet corn hybrids were worse than populations for most traits. Tolosa and Tuy had the best GCAs for most traits. Many adaptation problems encountered in sweet corn germplasm could be overcome by introducing favorable alleles from adapted field com populations.