Evaluation of maternal effect on inheritance of aluminum-tolerance in maize

Abstract

Open land, called cerrado, almost occupies one fourth of Brazilian territory and is characterized by acid soils with high aluminum saturation. The productivity of non-naturalized plants is reduced since growth of roots is greatly restrained. The use of aluminum-tolerant genotypes together with liming is a very promising strategy for the agricultural use of open land. Knowledge of inheritance mechanisms of aluminum-tolerance contributes towards obtaining of tolerant and productive genotypes. The aim of this research was to investigate the hypothesis of maternal effect on aluminum tolerance of maize inbred lines. Seedlings from six pairs of reciprocal crosses, produced by two tolerant and three non-tolerant inbred lines, were evaluated. Seminal root growth rates in presence of aluminum were similar among all progenies derived by reciprocal crosses. The results demonstrated the control of aluminum tolerance by dominant nuclear alleles in maize, without any detectable effect of extranuclear genes.