High-quality protein maize with normal texture (flint endosperm) was discovered in the progenies from crosses of high-quality floury-a x normal lines. It is probable that high-quality was regulated by a genetic system without any floury gene in the background. Absence of fl-a was confirmed by crossing these strains with fl-a/fl-a lines as mothers. Expression of fl-a was not hidden by texture modifiers. These strains have normal phenotype (hard endosperm) and normal genotype (without floury genes) and it is possible, by preliminary tests, to find that high-quality protein may be regulated by a system involving very few genes, perhaps not more than two. These strains have high tryptophan level, 0.7-1.0 g/ 16 g Nitrogen compared with 0.45 g/16 g Nitrogen, in F3 sibling ears.

Jorge Luis Magoja

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