Division of Genetics, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi-l10 012, India
2Present address: Ministry of Agriculture, Research Department, Kabul, Afghanistan.
1Part of the Ph.D. thesis submitted by the first author to the P.G. School of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi--110 012.
In maize, enhancement of maternal haploid frequency may be obtained by using specific inducer lines as pollen parent. Haploidy induction potential of an inducer material was increased, through three cycles of full sib selection, from 0⋅16% to more than 3%. Results from the selection experiment suggest that high haploidy inducing potential is a highly heritable trait not appreciably influenced by environment and is controlled by a large number of genes with additive effect. Further improvement in haploidy induction frequency in the inducer line may be obtained through testing and selection.
