Compositional Assessments of Key Maize Populations: B73 Hybrids of the Nested Association Mapping Founder Lines and Diverse Landrace Inbred Lines

The present study provides an assessment of the compositional diversity in maize B73 hybrids derived both from the Nested Association Mapping (NAM) founder lines and from a diverse collection of landrace accessions from North and South America. The NAM founders represent a key population of publicly available lines that are used extensively in the maize community to investigate the genetic basis of complex traits. Landraces are also of interest to the maize community as they offer the potential to discover new alleles that could be incorporated into modern maize lines. The compositional analysis of B73 hybrids from the 25 NAM founders and 24 inbred lines derived from landraces included measurements of proximates (protein, fat, ash, and starch), fibers, minerals, amino acids, fatty acids, tocopherols (α-, γ-, and δ-), β-carotene, phytic acid, and raffinose. Grain was harvested from a replicated trial in New York, USA. For each data set (NAM and landrace) canonical discriminant analysis allowed separation o...