Authors: P Revilla A Boyat A Álvarez B Gouesnard B Ordás V M Rodríguez A Ordás R A Malvar
Publish Date: 2006/08/11
Volume: 152, Issue: 2, Pages: 275-282
Abstract
Early vigor earliness and cold tolerance are the main potential contributions of European maize Zea mays L for breeding programs for adaptation to areas with short growing seasons and cold springs The objective of this research was to determine the potential contributions of populations from different European regions to breeding for adaptation Six Spanish and six French maize populations differing on variability for earliness vigor and cold tolerance were crossed in a complete diallel without reciprocals The populations and their crosses were evaluated in the field and in a cold chamber Minimum temperatures were the main environmental trait affecting genotype × environment interaction probably due to the cold sensitivity of the genotypes with the best performance in the field The best population cross based on specific heterosis for adaptationrelated traits in the field was Viana × Rastrojero but this cross was cold sensitive Tuy × Lazcano should be the best choice for a breeding program for adaptation based on performance in the field and cold tolerance As conclusions there was variability for earliness vigor and cold tolerance among the populations and crosses involved in this study being tolerant to cold conditions the populations with medium growing cycle originated in areas with short growing seasons The highest yielding crosses were cold sensitiveResearch supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology Ref HF19990138 the Ministère de l’Education Nationale et de la Recherche the Committee for Science and Technology of Spain Project AGL200406776 the Autonomous government of Galicia PGIDIT04RAG403006PR the Excma Diputación Provincial de Pontevedra and the European Union RESGEN 88 CT96
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