Agronomy Department, Ohio State University, U.S.A.
The objective was to find out the role of the interaction of cytoplasms of diverse origin with various genotypes in determining ten agronomic characters in maize. The characters studied were: yield; ear height; plant height; ear length; days to mid-silk; number of leaves; incidence of smut; number of tillers: number of ears and moisture content. Six exotic cytoplasm stocks from five different countries were compared with two corn-belt cytoplasms by means of reciprocal crosses. Each entry of a pair of crosses had the same genotype but different cytoplasm.
Differential cytoplasmic effects were observed for ear height, plant height and days to mid-silk. This shows that the source of cytoplasm is important for these characters and should be screened and utilized advantageously.
