Not AvailablePhytic acid (PA) is one of the important anti-nutritional factors which affect the
bioavailability of micronutrients like iron, zinc. Maize being one of the important
food and feed crop requires serious attentions to reduce its PA; majority of total
phosphorous is stored in this form which makes it unavailable to monogastric animals.
The phosphorus thus stored in the form of PA phosphate contributes to water
pollution because it is excreted as such. PA being strong chelating agent also forms
phytate salts with cation mineral elements like iron, zinc, calcium etc., thus affects the bioavailability of micronutrient mineral elements. Thus causes micronutrient mineral
deficiency in humans and phosphorous deficiency in animals. In the present study
efforts have been made to introgress gene (lpa2) determining lowPA has been
transferred from low-phytate mutant line lpa2 into an elite inbreds LM14 and LM17
through marker-assisted backcross breeding (MABB). The BC2F2 near-isogenic lines
(NILs) have been developed through introgression of lpa2 gene. Out of 118 BC2F2
plants of LM 17 × LPA2 family, 26 were homozygous positive for lpa2 gene and 65
were heterozygous; the remaining plant were negative (27 plants). Similarly, in LM
19 × LPA2 cross, out of 127 BC2F2 plants 24 were homozygous for lpa2and 70 plants
were heterozygous. The remaining plants were (33) were negative for the lpa2 gene.
The molecular marker, umc2230 was used as linked marker to select lpa2 gene.
Whereas the sequence-tagged molecular markers (STMS), were chosen to select
segregants with the highest genome recovery. The recurrent parent genome (RPG) varies
between 79-89 and 82-93 per cent in BC2F2 individuals derived from LM 17 × LPA2
and LM 19 × LPA2 respectively. The agronomic performance of selected NILs of
BC2F3 and the respective recurrent parents has shown that the NILs are comparable
with respective recurrent parents for days to flowering and almost all the yield
component traits like number of ear length, ear girth, kernel rows, kernels per row,
test weight etc. and also biochemical analysis for lowPA is underway. The NILs
developed would be used to reconstitute the original hybrids.Not Availabl
