Resumo

GONZALEZ-VAZQUEZ, VM et al. Characterisation of maize germoplasm that combines a high oil content and polyembryony. Universidad y ciencia [online]. 2011, vol.27, n.2, pp.157-167. ISSN 0186-2979.

An increase in the nutritional quality of maize (Zea mays L.) may be achieved by combining germoplasm sources that complement each other with respect to a high oil content and to protein quality. In this study, a high polyembryony population (PE) was used as a source of protein quality together with a high oil content population (AA) to generate PE:AA germoplasm combinations at doses of 0:100, 12.5:87.5, 25:75, 37.5:62.5, 50:50, 62.5:37.5, 75:25, 87.5:12.5 and 100:0%, in order to find the cited complementation. The response variables were: germination (GE) and polyembryony (PE) in greenhouse plants, and the content of crude fat (CF), crude protein (CP) and lysine (Lys) in whole grain flour. A completely randomised experimental design was applied with three repetitions. The means were compared with a Tukey test (α = 0.05). The results presented differences for all the studied variables (p ≤ 0.01). The optimal proportions (PE:AA) for grain nutritional quality were the 50:50 combinations (Lys = 2.7% and CF = 6.9%) that were higher than that of normal maize. The PE trait provides the polyembryonic population the highest lysine value (4%), while the AA presented the highest value of crude fat (8.3%).The germoplasm doses evaluated in this study are suitable to generate specialised maize varieties with a good nutritional quality.

Palavras-chave : Zea mays L; polyembryony; high oil maize; crude fat; lysine.