Genetic characterization and comparative assessment of response of biparental and multi-parental populations to northern corn leaf blight in maize (Zea mays L.)

To compare the efficiency of multiparental and biparental progenies to northern corn leaf blight (NCLB) resistance, F3 progenies were evaluated during two seasons. A total of 418 F3 progenies derived from multiple founder parents and 248 F3 progenies derived from two parents, namely, SKV50 (Resistant) and CM202 (Susceptible) were phenotyped for their response to the NCLB during summer and kharif 2020. A wide range of disease severity was observed among F3 progenies derived from multiple parents ranging from 28.12 to 62.93%. The difference in the variances between multiparent and biparental progenies was indicated by the significance of Levene’s test. High genotypic and phenotypic coefficient of variation was observed among multi-parental progenies than those derived from the biparental population. Reaction to NCLB showed moderate heritability of 57% and high genetic advance as per cent mean (20.70%) in the case of biparental population, whereas, multi-parental population exhibited a high heritability (68%) and high genetic advance as per cent mean (28.57%). The distribution of F3 progenies was found to be positively skewed and platykurtic indicating that the trait was under the control of large number of genes with complementary gene action.