Diversification of maize (Zea mays L.) through teosinte (Zea mays subsp. parviglumis Iltis & Doebley) allelic

Zea mays ssp. parviglumis is the progenitor of maize and assume to have tolerance against various biotic and abiotic stresses. It grows without human intervention in Southern Mexico at the bank of Balsas river and maintains sufficient genetic diversity that can help in maize diversification and domestication of wild alleles. To develop the uniform near to homozygous line the maize inbred parent DI-103 (seed parent) was crossed with teosinte (pollen parent) to produce F1s followed by one generation of backcrossing with DI-103. Subsequently, selfing was done to produce 126 BC1F3 and BC1F4 generations, which were evaluated in the Kharif 2017 and Rabi 2017–2018 for 12 characters. Large variations were observed for all the characters in BC1F3 and BC1F4 generations of teosinte derived maize population and depicted by box-plots. In addition to above, some lines with unique features such as protogynous behaviour in 76 lines, short ASI (0–1 days) in 20 lines and > 3 ears per plant in 21 lines were noted in both BC1F3 and BC1F4 generations. Allelic reshuffling between maize and teosinte genome is assume as a probable cause for wide range of variation among the lines. For inheritance of anthesis-silking interval and ear/plant in both the generations and for silking duration in BC1F3 generation complementary gene interaction is involved whereas for days to 50% anthesis, 50% silking duplicate gene interaction is involved in BC1F4 generations. The results of the investigation are unique and promising and it further indicates that teosinte can be used efficiently as a donor in diversification of maize germplasm and domestication of wild alleles particularly of those which are adaptive in nature and comply with climatic resiliency.