Teosinte, an ancestor to modern maize, displays an excellent performance regarding resistance to stress, but its yield potential has rarely been reported. To evaluate the potential contribution of teosinte to maize improvement, two maize–teosinte backcrossed recombination inbred line (RIL) populations and their corresponding test‐cross hybrids were planted for trait assessment. In RN and ZP RIL populations, the average coefficients of variation of 31 agronomic traits were 9.14% (Range, 0.38%‒25.21%) and 6.85% (Range, 0.55%‒27.73%), respectively. The correlation coefficients of 13 common shared traits between RIL populations and test‐cross hybrid populations ranged from 0.10 to 0.60 and from 0.06 to 0.72, respectively. A total of 39 and 3 recombined inbred lines, and 29 and 47 test‐cross hybrids exhibited higher yields than their checks (RP125, Zheng58, CD189 and ZD958) with the BLUP data, respectively. Furthermore, four test‐cross hybrids including RN034/SCML1950, ZP068/Chang7‐2, ZP079/Chang7‐2 and ZP122/Chang7‐2 showed a more stable yield performance, with yield gains of +7.07%, +3.64%, +5.83% and +3.82% over checks, respectively. In conclusion, teosinte could serve as an alien germplasm for maize breeding.

中文翻译：

---

评价teosinte对改善玉米（Zea mays）农艺，谷物品质和产量性状的贡献

Teosinte是现代玉米的祖先，在抗逆性方面显示出优异的性能，但鲜有报道其产量潜力。为了评估端粒蛋白对玉米改良的潜在贡献，种植了两个玉米-端粒蛋白回交重组近交系（RIL）种群及其相应的杂交试验品系进行性状评估。在RN和ZP RIL群体中，31个农艺性状的平均变异系数分别为9.14％（范围：0.38％‒25.21％）和6.85％（范围，0.55％‒27.73％）。RIL群体和交叉杂交群体的13个共有性状的相关系数分别为0.10至0.60和0.06至0.72。共有39个和3个重组自交系，以及29和47个测试杂交的杂种，其产量高于其对照（RP125，Zheng58，CD189和ZD958）分别具有BLUP数据。此外，包括RN034 / SCML1950，ZP068 / Chang7-2，ZP079 / Chang7-2和ZP122 / Chang7-2在内的四个测试杂交杂种表现出更稳定的产量表现，产量增幅分别为+7.07％，+ 3.64％，+ 5.83 ％和+ 3.82％超支。总之，teosinte可以作为玉米育种的外来种质。