In the recent years, traditional methods combined with molecular techniques have been used in many modern breeding programs. This gives the opportunity to introduce more objective selection criteria and parental material selection. It can also allow the time needed to breed a new hybrid to be significantly shortened. Many scientists tried to foresee the effect of heterosis by examining the genetic distance between the parental lines. The experiment was established in 2006 at the Agricultural Experiment Station in Dłoń (51° N; 17° E) of Poznań University of Life Sciences. The aim of this study was to prove the relation between the heterosis effect of the generation F₁ of corn and the molecular level genetic distance between the parental components, with respect to their origin. Proving those relations could make it possible to choose the parental forms which take part in the creation of a new hybrid, and to decrease the number of lines tested in nature. This shortens the breeding cycle and decreases the cost of breeding. The molecular markers: AFLP and RAPD can be useful in selecting the parental components for the purpose of corn hybridization.

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