Abstract
Carotenoids play vital role in growth and development of human beings. Yellow maize kernel contains carotenoids that possess provitamin A and antioxidant activity. Multilocation based analyses of 105 maize inbreds of indigenous and exotic origin revealed wide genetic variation for lutein (0.2–11.3 μg/g), zeaxanthin (0.2–20.0 μg/g) and β-carotene (0.0–15.0 μg/g). For β-cryptoxanthin, low variation (0.1–3.3 μg/g) was observed. Carotenoids were quite stable over environments that played minor role in causing variation. The heritability (>90%) and genetic advance (>75%) were high for all the carotenoid components. Zeaxanthin showed positive correlation with lutein and β-cryptoxanthin, while β-carotene, the major provitamin A carotenoid, did not show correlation with other carotenoids. Kernel colour was positively correlated with lutein (0.25), zeaxanthin (0.47) and β-cryptoxanthin (0.44), but not with β-carotene (0.04). This suggested that visual selection based on kernel colour will be misleading in selecting provitamin A-rich genotypes. Inbreds with provitamin A and non-provitamin A carotenoids identified in the present study will help in development of biofortified maize hybrids.
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Acknowledgements
MV sincerely acknowledges the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) for providing Senior Research Fellowship for his doctoral research. The financial support from Department of Biotechnology (DBT) under the project ‘Development of micronutrient enriched maize through molecular breeding’ (SAN No.102/IFD/SAN/4455/2011-2012) is gratefully acknowledged. The authors thank Dr. Kevin Pixley (CIMMYT-HarvestPlus Programme) for providing β-carotene rich lines used in the study. We also thank the breeders from AICMIP, India for sharing the inbred lines.
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Muthusamy, V., Hossain, F., Thirunavukkarasu, N. et al. Genetic Variability and Inter-relationship of Kernel Carotenoids among Indigenous and Exotic Maize (Zea mays L.) Inbreds. CEREAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS 43, 567–578 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1556/0806.43.2015.012
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1556/0806.43.2015.012