Indian Journal of Genetics and Plant Breeding (The)
SCOPUSWeb of Science
  • Year: 2025
  • Volume: 85
  • Issue: 1

Genetic variation for methionine, tryptophan and lysine in maize (Zea mays L.) inbred lines

  • Author:
  • Ramesh Kumar*, Vishal Singh, Abhijit Kumar Das, Dharam Paul Chaudhary, Chikkappa G. Karjagi1, Alla Singh, Sunil Neelam2, Bhupender Kumar, Jatin Sharma3, Yashmeet Kaur, Sushil Kumar, Shanu Shukla, Preeti Sharma4, Digbijaya Swain5, Neha Sharma6, Sujay Rakshit7
  • Total Page Count: 8
  • Page Number: 87 to 94

1ICAR-Indian Institute of Maize Research Regional Station, Begusarai, 851 211, Bihar, India

2ICAR-Indian Institute of Maize Research WNC, Hyderabad, 500 030, Telangana, India

3Department of Plant Breeding & Genetics, PAU, Ludhiana, 141 004, Punjab, India

4Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Regional Research Station, Karnal, 132 116, Haryana, India

5Department of Plant Breeding & Genetics, OUAT, Bubhneshwar, 751 003, Odhisa, India

6Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, HAREC, Bajaura, 175 125, Himachal Pradesh, India

7ICAR-Indian Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology, Ranchi, 834 003, Jharkhand, India

ICAR-Indian Institute of Maize Research, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) Campus, Ludhiana, 141 004, Punjab, India

*Corresponding Author: Ramesh Kumar, ICAR-Indian Institute of Maize Research, Punjab Agricultural University Campus, Ludhiana, 141 004, Punjab, India, E-Mail: rk.phagna@gmail.com

Online Published on 11 July, 2025.

Abstract

A lack of key amino acids, including lysine, tryptophan and methionine causes nutritional imbalance in maize (Zea mays L.) grain protein. The present investigation was carried out to determine the genetic variation for kernel methionine, lysine and tryptophan content in 25 promising maize inbred lines. ANOVA revealed significant differences between the genotypes for methionine (1.56–2.96%), lysine (1.90–3.68%), and tryptophan (0.51–0.92 %) content. QIL-4-2831 (2.96%), QIL-4-2829 (2.60%), QIL-4-2830 (2.44%), QIL-4-2311 (2.42%) and QIL-4-3080 (2.39%) had the highest mean methionine content. The present findings also indicated that there was no significant correlation between methionine and lysine (r=0.14), nor between methionine and tryptophan (r = 0.09). However, lysine and tryptophan were shown to have a positive correlation (r = 0.84**). The high methionine lines can be used for developing high methionine cultivars in future crop improvement programs.

Keywords

Maize, High methionine, Lysine, Tryptophan, Grain yield