Selection for high oil content in an opaque-2

Abstract

The opaque-2 Synthetic A population was subjected to three methods of selection for high oil in the kernel: progeny, full-sib, and halfsib family selection. The first generation of selection was grown at Lafayette, Indiana, USA, during the summer of 1970 and the second generation was grown in Hawaii during the winter of 1971. Composite samples from the various populations formed during the selection program were evaluated in a randomized complete block experiment at Lafayette during the summer of 1971. From each population data were obtained for grain yield, percent of oil and protein in kernel and lysine as percent of protein. Yields of oil and lysine were calculated. Data for germ as percent of kernel and percent of oil in germ were obtained for two populations. The following results were obtained: 1) the three methods were equally effective for increasing oil content in kernel by an average of 0.37 percent in two generations; 2) progeny selection resulted in an increase of 0.70 in the variable germ as percent of kernel, and a nonsignificant increase in percent of oil in germ; 3) a positive correlated response in percent of protein in kernel was observed with the oil selection, suggesting that selection for oil content may be used to increase the percentage of kernel protein in the opaque-2 population studied; 4) the grain yield and lysine level of the kernel protein was not affected by the oil selection between the intervals of ou observed in this study.