Heterozygosity following half-sib recurrent selection in popcorn using isoenzyme markers

Isozyme biochemical marker may be useful tool for genomic analysis of maize populations undergoing recurrent selection. Thus, isozymes markers was utilized for assess the changes in the genetic variability and distance in a Brazilian composite population of popcorn following four cycles of recurrent selection for yield. One hundred and ninety-six half-sib families were evaluated from each cycle and the ten highest-yielding families (5.2%) were recombined to produce the next cycle. Isozyme analysis considered 80 seedlings per cycle. Simple linear regression equations were estimated among the allele frequencies in each locus in function of the selection cycles, the genetic distances among the cycles and the average heterozygosity per locus for each cycle. Regression analysis did not reveal any common trend for changes in allele frequencies presumably due to selection. The estimates of the number of polymorphic locus, of the mean of allele per locus and the mean heterozygosity did not reveal any reduction in variability. It was concluded that four selection cycles did not cause relevant changes in the variability or genetic distance among the selection cycles of CMS-43 popcorn population. Isozymes markers analysis showed that the number of recombined half-sib families in recurrent selection was suitable.