Maize (Zea mays) is an important cereal crop grown insubtropical and temperate climates where annual rain fall250 mm to 5000 mm per year . In the present study , 50 maize inbred lines wer e characterized for molecular and yield contributing traits. Fifty inbred lines were screened for the presence of opaque 2 gene. Molecular characterization showed that L24, L25, L31 and 40 genotypes were heterozygous for the locus, confirmed byby amplifying 169 bp in QPM hybrid and 161 bp in inbred lines . Analysis of variance and principal component analysis (PCA)showed the presence of wider diversity in maize inbred lines. There were highly significant differences present in inbred lines for all the parameter s studied ,the correlation among different traits were also determined, and it was found that plant height and ear height had highly sig nificant positive correlated with yield per plant, ear diameter and the number of grains per row had a significant positive correlation with yield per plant. Key words: Zea mays, bio-fortification, Opaque-2 gene, PCA analysis. 1 Introduction: According to FAO (2015) , 794.6 million people in
Read the full article in the downloadable PDF.
Download Full PDF