Genetic Parameters for Selected Traits of Inbred Lines of Maize (Zea mays L.)

This paper presents an estimation of the parameters connected with the additive (a) effect, additive by additive (aa) epistatic effect, and additive by additive by additive (aaa) interaction gene effect for nine quantitative traits of maize (Zea mays L.) inbred lines. To our knowledge, this is the first report about aaa interaction of maize inbred lines. An analysis was performed on 252 lines derived from Plant Breeding Smolice Ltd. (Smolice, Poland)-Plant Breeding and Acclimatization Institute-National Research Institute Group (151 lines) and Malopolska Plant Breeding Ltd. (Kobierzyce, Poland) (101 lines). The total additive effects were significant for all studied cases. Two-way and three-way significant interactions were found in most analyzed cases with a considerable impact on phenotype. Omitting the inclusion of higher-order interactions effect in quantitative genetics may result in a substantial underestimation of additive QTL effects. Expanding models with that information may also be helpful in future homozygous line crossing projects.

Automated summary

This paper presents an estimation of the parameters connected with the additive effect, aa epistatic effect, and aaa interaction gene effect for nine quantitative traits of maize inbred lines. The study found significant two-way and three-way interactions in most cases, which had a considerable impact on the phenotype. Neglecting higher-order interactions may result in a substantial underestimation of additive QTL effects.