Carotenoid accumulation and agronomic performance of maize hybrids involving parental combinations from different marker-based groups.

The present study examined the effect of crossing parental lines from two AFLP-based groups on carotenoid accumulation and agronomic performance in hybrids, which were tested in four environments in Nigeria. Environments, hybrids and hybrid × environment interactions had significant effects on carotenoid content. Hybrids had consistent carotenoid levels across test environments. The correlations between carotenoids produced in a specific branch of the biosynthetic pathway were significant and positive. Environments, hybrids and hybrid × environment interactions had significant effects on grain yield and other traits in this study. Several hybrids with high provitamin A content that were competitive to a commercial hybrid in grain yield and other traits were identified in this study. Selection of parental lines with high provitamin A content and desirable agronomic traits from different molecular-based groups may serve as the basis for developing hybrids with greater expression of heterosis in productivity and concentrations of provitamin A carotenoids.