Genetic characterization and comparative assessment of response of biparental and multi-parental populations to northern corn leaf blight in maize (Zea mays L.)

To compare the efficiency of multiparental and biparental progenies to northern corn leaf blight (NCLB) resistance, F₃progenies were evaluated during two seasons. A total of 418 F₃progenies derived from multiple founder parents and 248 F₃progenies derived from two parents, namely, SKV50 (Resistant) and CM202 (Susceptible) were phenotyped for their response to the NCLB during summer and kharif 2020. A wide range of disease severity was observed among F₃progenies derived from multiple parents ranging from 28.12 to 62.93%. The difference in the variances between multiparent and biparental progenies was indicated by the significance of Levene’s test. High genotypic and phenotypic coefficient of variation was observed among multi-parental progenies than those derived from the biparental population. Reaction to NCLB showed moderate heritability of 57% and high genetic advance as per cent mean (20.70%) in the case of biparental population, whereas, multi-parental population exhibited a high heritability (68%) and high genetic advance as per cent mean (28.57%). The distribution of F₃progenies was found to be positively skewed and platykurtic indicating that the trait was under the control of large number of genes with complementary gene action.