Genetic structure analysis and identifying key founder inbred lines in diverse elite sub-tropical maize inbred lines.

Understanding the genetic relationships between the key founder inbred lines and derived inbred lines could provide insight into the breeding history and the structure of genetic diversity of the available elite inbred lines with desirable target traits. The maize improvement program at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) analyzed the pedigree information of 623 sub-tropical maize inbred lines generated at the IITA maize breeding program to identify the key founder inbred lines. We also used 5032 SNP markers to assess the genetic similarities of the founder inbred lines with their progenies subsequently developed for specific target traits.