Nature of Inheritance to Heat Stress and Selection of Inherent Genotypes in Tropical Maize

Maize is an important cereal in sub-Saharan Africa. Its production is however hampered by both biotic and abiotic factors. Among the abiotic factors, heat stress has been reported to cause yield losses. The objective of this study was therefore to identify tolerant genotypes to heat stress and determine the type of gene action conditioning heat tolerance in tropical maize. To achieve these objectives, five maize inbred lines (L2 [P1]; DTS 6,36 [P2]; L5527 [P3]; DTS 6,6 [P4] and DTS 6,92 [P5]) were mated in a 5 x 5 half diallel. Their progeny were evaluated at a heat prone site (Lusitu) and at the University of Zambia (UNZA), a control site. The experiment was laid as a randomised complete block design with two replications in each site. Highly significant differences (P ≤ 0.01) were obtained among genotypes in Lusitu with regards to all measured parameters. The crosses[P2 (DTS 6,36) x P4 (DTS 6,6)] and [P4 (DTS 6,6) x P5 (DTS 6,92)]were identified as tolerant genotypes to heat stress. Further analysis showed that the general combining ability (GCA) effects for parent P4 (DTS 6, 6) and P3 (L5527) were positively and negatively significantly different (P ≤ 0.01) from zero respectively with regards to all measured parameters. On the other hand, crosses [P1 (L2) x P3 (L5527)] & [P4 (DTS 6,6) x P5 (DTS 6,92)]were found to possess desirable significant (P ≤ 0.05) specific combining ability (SCA)effects from zero. The results of baker’s ratio obtained for responseto heat stress for all secondary traits measured were found to be greater than 0.88. This implied that additive gene action was more important in conditioning the response of these traits to heat tolerance.