1Crop Improvement, Regional Maize Research and Seed Production Centre, ICAR-Indian Institute of Maize Research, Vishnupur, Begusarai851 129, Bihar, India.
2Crop Improvement, Winter Nursery Centre, ICAR-Indian Institute of Maize Research, Rajendra Nagar, Hyderabad500 030, Telangana, India.
3Department of Plant Pathology, Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University, Lam, Guntur522 034, Andhra Pradesh, India.
4Department of Statistics and Computer Applications, Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University, Lam, Guntur522 034, Andhra Pradesh, India.
5Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, AICRP (Maize), Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana141 004, Punjab, India.
6Department of Plant Pathology, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur, Nadia741 252, West Bengal, India.
7Department of Plant Pathology, Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Udham Singh Nagar, Pantnagar263 145, Uttarakhand, India.
8Division of Plant Pathology, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa Campus, New Delhi110 012, Delhi, India.
9Division of Germplasm Evaluation, ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, Pusa Campus, New Delhi110 012, Delhi, India.
10Division of Germplasm Conservation, ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, Pusa Campus, New Delhi110 012, Delhi, India.
11ICAR-Indian Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology, Ranchi834 003, Jharkhand, India.
12Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University, Lam, Guntur522 034, Andhra Pradesh, India.
*Corresponding Author: Sujay Rakshit, ICAR-Indian Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology, Ranchi834 003, Jharkhand, India, E-mail: s.rakshit@icar.org.in
Twelve maize inbred lines, differing for resistance to banded leaf and sheath blight (BLSB) were crossed in a half-diallel mating design and the F1s were evaluated during kharif2023 at Delhi and Peddapuram. The combining ability of these inbred lines for BLSB resistance under artificial inoculation and grain yield in artificial and natural conditions was assessed. The ANOVA revealed highly significant GCA variances (p <0.01) for grain yield in both conditions as well as for resistance to BLSB, indicating additive genetic variance for both traits. In addition, crosses and SCA effects also showed significant variances for both traits, suggesting the presence of significant variability among half-diallel crosses and non-additive genetic variance. Notably, the mean squares for GCA in BLSB disease resistance were much higher than those for SCA, indicating that additive genetic effects predominantly contributed to disease resistance. The results indicated that the selection for BLSB resistance under artificial epiphytotic conditions at hotspot locations would be effective in breeding programs. P5 and P7 were the most desirable inbreds for developing high-yielding, BLSB-resistant hybrids due to their higher magnitude of positive GCA effects for grain yield and higher magnitude of negative GCA effects for BLSB disease. P4xP12, P5×P7, P6×P12, and P6xP1 exhibited significant negative SCA effects for BLSB resistance and significant positive SCA effects for grain yield under artificial inoculation conditions, making them promising combinations for further breeding programs.
Maize, BLSB, combining ability, resistance, grain yield
