Discovery and Transfer of Genes from Wild Zea Germplasm to Improve Grain Oil and Protein Composition of Temperate Maize
Authors: Smith Margaret , Katzir Nurit , McCouch Susan , Tadmor Yaakov 
Published: December 2021

Project Objectives 1. Develop and amplify two interspecific populations (annual and perennial teosintes x elite maize inbred) as the basis for genetic analysis of grain quality. 2. Identify quantitative trait loci (QTLs) from teosinte that improve oil, protein, and essential amino acid composition of maize grain. 3. Develop near isogenic lines (NILs) to quantify QTL contributions to grain quality and as a resource for future breeding and gene cloning efforts. 4. Analyze the contribution of these QTLs to hybrid performance in both the US and Israel. 5. Measure the yield potential of improved grain quality hybrids. (NOTE: Yield potential could not be evaluated due to environmentally-caused failure of the breeding nursery where seed was produced for this evaluation.) Background: Maize is a significant agricultural commodity worldwide. As an open pollinated crop, variation within the species is large and, in most cases, sufficient to supply the demand for modem varieties and for new environments. In recent years there is a growing demand for maize varieties with special quality attributes. While domesticated sources of genetic variation for high oil and protein content are limited, useful alleles for these traits may remain in maize's wild relative, teosinte. We utilized advanced backcross (AB) analysis to search for QTLs contributing to oil and protein content from two teosinte accessions: Zea mays ssp. mexicana Race Chalco, an annual teosinte (referred to as Chalco), and Z diploperennis Race San Miguel, a perennial teosinte (referred to as Diplo). Major Conclusions and Achievements Two NILs targeting a Diplo introgression in bin 1.04 showed a significant increase in oil content in homozygous sib-pollinated seed when compared to sibbed seed of their counterpart non-introgressed controls. These BC4S2 NILs, referred to as D-RD29 and D-RD30, carry the Diplo allele in bin 1.04 and the introgression extends partially into bins 1.03 and 1.05. These NILs remain heterozygous in bins 4.01 and 8.02, but otherwise are homozygous for the recurrent parent (RD6502) alleles. NILs were developed also for the Chalco introgression in bin 1.04 but these do not show any improvement in oil content, suggesting that the Chalco alleles differ from the Diplo alleles in this region. Testcross Fl seed and sibbed grain from these Fl plants did not show any effect on oil content from this introgression, suggesting that it would need to be present in both parents of a maize hybrid to have an effect on oil content. Implications, both Scientific and Agricultural The Diplo region identified increases oil content by 12.5% (from 4.8% to 5.4% oil in the seed). Although this absolute difference is not large in agronomic terms, this locus could provide additive increases to oil content in combination with other maize-derived loci for high oil. To our knowledge, this is the first confirmed report of a QTL from teosinte for improved grain oil content in maize. It suggests that further research on grain quality alleles from maize wild relatives would be of both scientific and agricultural interest.