STUDIES ON COLOR VARIEGATION IN OPEN-POLLINATED ZEA-MAYS L CULTIVARS

Variegation patterns of kernel colour pigmentation in open-pollinated cultivations of Zea mays L. in Nigeria suggest a genetical basis that possibly involves epistatic interactions between various genes. The si mplest models indicate a dominance of yellow pigmentation to white, an d possibly deriving from two up to four loci; more complex patterns su ggest a segregation of dominant brown, purple, or red pigmentation, to recessive yellow, and possibly controlled by up to about nine genes. There is an indication that open-pollinated maize cultivations are hig hly heterozygous for kernel colour genes. Hence, the predominantly cro ss-breeding system of maize would essentially effect a selfing or sib- crossing of these colour genes, to yield epistatic variegation complex es. Other variegation patterns appear to reflect a Xenia and dosage ef fects.