Molecular characterization of diverse CIMMYT maize inbred lines from eastern and southern Africa using single nucleotide polymorphic markers

Published in BMC Genomics  13 : 113, 2012

Kassa Semagn, Cosmos Magorokosho, Bindiganavile S. Vivek, Dan Makumbi, Yoseph Beyene, Stephen Mugo, B. M. Prasanna and Marilyn L. Warburton

Knowledge of germplasm diversity and relationships among elite breeding materials   is fundamentally important in crop improvement. We genotyped 450 maize inbred lines   developed and/or widely used by CIMMYT breeding programs in both Kenya and Zimbabwe   using 1065 SNP markers to (i) investigate population structure and patterns of relationship   of the germplasm for better exploitation in breeding programs; (ii) assess the usefulness   of SNPs for identifying heterotic groups commonly used by CIMMYT breeding programs;   and (iii) identify a subset of highly informative SNP markers for routine and low   cost genotyping of CIMMYT germplasm in the region.