SOKKA REDDY, SSURENDER, M2016-06-072016-06-072011http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/66907Development of QPM (Quality Protein Maize) with high lysine and tryptophan is foremost important task in maize breeding programme. Marker assisted selection is the easiest way of developing QPM hybrids in short time. Our investigation deals with identification of suitable donors for QPM hybrid development. 60 germ plasm lines have been screened with gene specific SSR marker: umc1066. SSR markers are known to distinctly identify the differences among opaque-2 alleles. The opaque-2 mutant allele with larger distance from wild type allele on the agarose gels is preferred as a donor in conversion of non QPM lines. However, the highest quantity of lysine and tryptophan should be kept in mind in such conversion programmes. Seven lines have shown distinct allelic differences to wild type allele in the non QPM lines. In order to identify the ease with which the seven potential donors could be used in conversion programs, they have been crossed with BML 2, BML 6, BML 7 and BML 15. The molecular weight of all the seven opaque- 2 mutant alleles in the donors appears to be same (~156 bp) on agarose gels with metaphor: merc agarose(1:2). There appears to be a difference of less than ten bases between wild type and mutant alleles. In order to assess the visibility and feasibility of using these donors, CML181 and CML186 have been crossed with a few important non QPM inbred lines like BML 2, BML 6, BML 7 and BML 15. The gel patterns revealed a satisfactory resolution between the alleles. Since SSR markers are co-dominant, we preferred to use them in our studies as they are found to be the best under the existing laboratory conditions next to SNPs which are costlyendna, biological development, meat, plant extracts, vegetables, ecosystems, livestock, storage structures, protein products, inorganic compoundsThesis