Published in Scientific Papers. Series A. Agronomy, Vol. LVIII
Written by Andrei PALII, Grigorii BATÎRU, Alexandru ROTARI, Eugen ROTARI, Galina COMAROV
Maize is an important souse of vegetable protein. However, maize grains contain low protein and the protein is of poorquality, due to deficiencies in essential amino acids like lysine and tryptophan. Conventional breeding methods havebeen used to overcome this problem, yet, the only possible solution is the use of specific genes. Two of them areopaque2 and floury2, which have been extensively used in breeding maize for protein quality. Difficulties regardingpleiotropic effects of the genes on some important cultural characteristics, determine to find new ways of using thesegenes. This paper aims to present the results of biochemical analysis of diploid and tetraploid maize grains that containthe opaque-2 (o2) gene. Experiments were conducted at the Department of Plant Biology of the State AgrarianUniversity of Moldova and at the Institute of Phytotechny “Porumbeni” in 2013. The research involved two specialmaize hybrids approved in Moldova and their tetraploid forms obtained by colchicine treatment. Biochemical analysisof diploid and tetraploid o2 grain was performed by infrared spectroscopy and traditional methods. As a result of thestudy it was revealed that tetraploid grains show higher protein content and a decrease in starch and fat. Lysine contentwas almost similar in the two types of grains. As hexaploid endosperm cells of the tetraploid grains are bigger involume than triploid endosperm cells of the diploid grains, it was concluded that lysine content per cell is double intetraploid grains.
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