Here, we analyzed whether the microRNA (miRNA) expression levels differ between maize inbred lines B73 and Mo17 and their reciprocal hybrids under salt and drought stress. We found that miR156, miR164, miR166, miR168, miR171 and miR319 are differentially expressed under abiotic stress. Interestingly, Mo17 × B73 showed the strongest change in miRNA expression in response to salt or drought stres...

BACKGROUND Heterosis describes the superior phenotypes observed in hybrids relative to their inbred parents. Maize is a model system for studying heterosis due to the high levels of yield heterosis and commercial use of hybrids. METHODS The inbred lines from an association mapping panel were crossed to a common inbred line, B73, to generate nearly 300 hybrid genotypes. Heterosis was evaluated...

Herbivore-induced plant volatiles have been shown to serve as indirect defence signals that attract natural enemies of herbivores. Parasitoids and predators exploit these plant-provided cues to locate their victims and several herbivores are repelled by the volatiles. Recently, benefits, in terms of plant fitness, from the action of the parasitoids were shown for a few systems. However, the cos...

In this study, we compared the efficiency of simple sequence repeat (SSR) and sequence specific amplified polymorphism (SSAP) markers for analyzing genetic diversity, genetic relationships, and population structure of 87 super sweet corn inbred lines from different origins. SSR markers showed higher average gene diversity and Shannon's information index than SSAP markers. To assess genetic rela...

Identifying efficient testers for separating maize (Zea mays L.) inbred lines into heterotic groups can facilitate the development of superior hybrids. Striga-resistant yellow-maize developed at International Institute Tropical Agriculture (IITA) do not have well established groups. This study was conducted to identify classifying Thirty were crossed with three having varying levels resistance ...

Breeding maize with high contents of zinc, iron and provitamin A (PVA) could be effective in mitigating micronutrient deficiency developing countries a reliance on maize-based diets. Information the mode inheritance iron, PVA grain yield (GY) would facilitate development varieties enhanced these nutrients. Twenty-four yellow to orange inbred lines their 96 F1 hybrids generated using North Carol...

The fungus Fusarium verticillioides infects maize (Zea mays L.) ears and kernels, resulting in Fusarium ear rot disease, reduced grain yields, and contamination of grain with the mycotoxin fumonisin. Hybrid maize breeding programs involve selection for both inbred and hybrid performance; the emphasis placed on inbred versus hybrid selection depends on heritability of and the genetic correlation...

In Maize (Zea maize L.), cost of hybrid seed production is directly related to the yield and quality of seed obtained per hectare of female parent. It is also important to consider the effects that a male parent can exert on the development of hybrid seed in the female parent. This effect is known as xenia. The objectives of this study were to evaluate xenia effects on 1) yield as 80K units, 2)...

Plant resistance is a promising control method for the two most damaging insect pests of maize, Zea mays L.: the European corn borer, Ostrinia nubilalis (Hübner), and the western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte. Fifteen experimental lines of maize, derived from a backcross breeding program designed to introgress resistance to European corn borer from Peruvian maize into tw...

MODEM is a comprehensive database of maize multidimensional omics data, including genomic, transcriptomic, metabolic and phenotypic information from the cellular to individual plant level. This initial release contains approximately 1.06 M high quality SNPs for 508 diverse inbred lines obtained by combining variations from RNA sequencing on whole kernels (15 days after pollination) of 368 lines...