Karyotype of native Zea mays ssp. mays Proto-Confite morocho

Abstract

Corn is a crop of great importance in the world since it constitutes a basic component of the diet of the population; a production of 1026.61 million tons was estimated during the present year. Currently, there are many theories about the wild ancestors of corn, being Proto-Confite Morocho one of the primitive races in Peru, which is attributedas the ancestor of numerous native varieties. Therefore, knowledge of its genetic constitution is important since it gives us the possibility of finding phylogenetic affinities and indicators of systematic classification. The present study was carried out with the purpose of elaborating the karyotype of Zea mays ssp. mays ‘native corn’ Proto-Confite morocho and determine the number and morphology of the chromosomes. Corn seeds from the province of Virú, La Libertad, Peru, were used, while the experimental phase was developed in the Laboratory of Geneticsand Molecular Biology at the National University of Trujillo, where metaphase plaques were obtained, selecting the best to perform the karyotype. It was concluded that the Zea mays ssp. mays ‘native corn’ Proto-Confite morocho presents 3 pairs of chromosomes ( 4, 4’, 8, 8’, 10, 10’) submetacentric and 7 pairs of chromosomes (1, 1’, 2, 2’,3, 3’, 5, 5’, 6, 6’, 7, 7’, 9, 9’) metacentric, which average size are between 4.16 and 1.88 μm.