Xenia and Metaxenia in Maize Hybrid Varieties as a Consequence of Paternal Pollen Effect

Abstract

Background and Objective: “Xenia and metaxenia” in maize (Zea mays L.) are phenomena that potentially exploited in creating promising new maize superior variety in short time. The objective of this experiment was to study the possibility to exploit both phenomena in creating the base population materials to form new superior maize variety candidate. Materials and Methods: Three different levels production of seeds maize hybrid varieties namely white colour and lower production of Arumba and yellow colour and higher production of both Bonanza and Ganebo were used as crossing parents. Complete diallel crossing method and natural open pollination of the parents were used in generating those F1 ’s of ear and kernel families in studying these phenomena. The xenia phenomenon was measured the 100 kernel weight (g) and the kernel number/ear, whereas the metaxenia phenomenon was measured the ear diameter (mm) and lengths (cm). All data gathered were analyzed by mean calculations and to draw conclusion, the one tail paired t-test at " 0.05 significant level was performed. Results: The research results indicated that the 100 kernels weight was generally xenia expressed, meanwhile, the kernel number/ear was also generally xenia expressed. Besides, all crossing pairings were metaxenia expressed for the ear length, but only a crossing pairing between Bonanza as a male parent and Arumba as a female parent were not ear length inherited. Conclusion: Both xenia and metaxenia phenomena in maize hybrid variety are included in increasing a quantitative yield corresponding to the kernel and ear traits.