Partially inbred maize lines in topcrosses and hybrid performance

Various techniques and genetic designs can be employed in maize breeding, including diallel crosses, which is a methodology used to select genotypes with a high combining ability and allelic complementarity. Since breeding programs involve a high number of genotypes, partial diallels and topcrosses have been given preference in the evaluation of specific sets of crosses (Rodovalho et al., 2012). The topcross hybrids of partially inbred lines are alternatives to reducing time and cost to obtain hybrids, because the production system needs a smaller number of successive self-fertilizations and a smaller area to obtain and multiply the lines, reaching the market at a faster time, maintaining greater yield when compared with inbred lines (Ferreira et al., 2009; 2010). [...]the goals of this study were to verify the potential of S2 strains for synthesis of synthetic varieties and to obtain experimental information on yield and agronomic potential of topcross hybrids. The following traits were assessed in each plot: the number of days for male flowering (MF) and for female flowering (FF), and for a sample of five plants, the plant height (PH) and the ear height (EH) were measured in meters. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The coefficients of experimental variation (Table 1) were, in general, of low magnitude for all traits, ranging from 1.89 to 16.91. [...]it is deduced that there was good experimental accuracy for the traits evaluated.