STABILITY OF MAIZE HYBRIDS DEVELOPED THROUGH INTEGRATION OF RAPID CYCLE GENOMIC SELECTION AND DOUBLED HAPLOID TECHNOLOGY

Maize is highly sensitive to environmental conditions, especially heat stress which leads to severe yield loss.For ever changing climate, it is very much necessary to develop cultivars with improved heat tolerance using appropriate genetic approaches.Hence, the present study was designed to assess the stability of 111 doubled haploid testcross hybrids which were derived from C 1 , C 2 and C 3 cycles of multi-parental synthetic (MPS) population 1 and 2, developed through the integration of genomic selection and doubled haploid technology.The experiment was laid out in alpha lattice design across two locations Bheemarayanagudi and Raichur in Karnataka during 2018 and 2019 under heat stress, early spring and optimal growing conditions.The approach of Eberhart and Russell (1966) was used to assess the stability of hybrids for major characters.Among the 111 hybrids, the testcross CML451/(MPS-1-C2GS)-DH7 had best mean value for grain yield (5.476 t ha -1 ), i nearer to unity (0.905) and non-significant S 2 d i (-0.295), thus identified as stable over studied environmental situations.This hybrid needs to be tested extensively at different locations under different situations for its suitability for commercialization besides using in new hybrid combinations.Similarly, one testcross CML451/(MPS-2-C1)-DH8 was found stable for plant height and three testcrosses viz., CML451/ (MPS-1-C2GS)-DH30, CML451/(MPS-2-C1)-DH73 and CML451/(MPS-2-C2GS)-DH65 were identified as stable for number of kernels per cob.Therefore, these DH's could be incorporated in breeding stocks for further use.