Screening of tropical maize inbred lines for disease resistance in Bangladesh

Abstract

The cultivation of maize in Bangladesh has been boosted over the last decade. Concurrently, diseases are also becoming a major threat to its higher production because of lacking disease-resistant cultivars. The study screened 29 maize inbred lines against southern corn leaf blight, northern corn leaf blight, downy mildew, rust, stalk rot, anthracnose, and maize leaf streak in field conditions. Among the inbred lines, Ag-0296, Ag-0305, Ag-0309, Ag-0312, Ag-0314, Ag-0318 and Ag-0321 showed resistance to various diseases. Twenty-one inbred lines belonged to cluster I demonstrated highest plant height (154.75 cm), ear height (61.19 cm) and yield (4.41 t/h), intermediate days to pollen shedding (108.43), days to silking (109.90) and days to maturity (157.14). Finally, cluster analysis revealed Ag-0296, Ag-0298, Ag-0300, Ag-0301, Ag-0303, Ag-0304, Ag-0305, Ag-0306, Ag-0307, Ag-0309, Ag-0310, Ag-0311, Ag-0313, Ag-0315, Ag-0318, Ag-0319, Ag-0321 and Ag-0324 belongs to Cluster I as they showed both disease resistance ability with good agronomic attributes.

Keywords:

• Maize
• disease resistance
• agronomic attributes
• cluster analysis
• genetic analysis

Acknowledgments

We appreciate Institute of Research and Training (IRT), Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University, Dinjapur-5200, Bangladesh and Bangladesh Wheat and Maize Research Institute, Dinajpur-5200 for providing financial and technical support during this study, respectively.

Authors’ contributions

JS conducted the experiment, collected and analyzed the data, drafted the manuscript; MME wrote the manuscript; MA analyzed the data; AA reviewed the manuscript; MMI reviewed the manuscript; MMH designed the experiment, reviewed and edited the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Availability of data and materials

All datasets on which conclusions of the study have been drawn are presented in the main manuscript

Additional information

Funding

This work was partially supported by Institute of Research and Training (2020–2021), Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University, Dinajpur-5200, Bangladesh