Heterosis and Combining Ability of Yield per Plant in Reid Improved Lines of Maize under Different Densities
Using six improved lines of Reid as female parents and five inbred lines of Non-Reid and DOM as male parents,adopting NC II design,setting 60 000,75 000 and 90 000 plant/hm2 density gradient,we studied heterosis and combining ability of yield per plant of F1.The results showed that heterosis of yield per plant was ubiquitous under three densities,under low density,heterosis of yield per plant was higher,and with the increase of density,heterosis decreased,but the improved line J1959 had high heterosis under high density.The interaction of hybrid combination×density existed extremely significantly,the combination of J2111 × 5AD could give full play to increase production under 60 000 plants/hm2 density,while the combination of J1959×5AD was under 90 000 plants/ hm2 density.As for combining ability,under 60 000 plants/hm2 density,the improved line J2111 had the highest GCA effect (7.09);Under 75 000 plants/hm2 and 90 000 plant/hm2 density,the improved line J1959 had the highest GCA effect (7.18 and 13.48,respectively),which illustrated that the improved line J1959 was more suitable for close planting;The SCA effect of combination J1959×5AD increased with the increase of density (-2.14,3.13 and 9.32,respectively),and the SCA effect of combination J2111 × S122 decreased with the increase of density (6.04,-2.19,-9.47,respectively),which indicated that the former was suitable for high density environment,while the latter was suitable for low density environment.