HETEROSIS, CORRELATION AND PATH COEFFICIENT ANALYSIS FOR FORAGE YIELD AND ITS CONTRIBUTING TRAITS OF MAIZE X TEOSINTE HYBRIDS IN TWO SEASONS

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Forage Crops Research Department, FCRI, ARC, Giza, Egypt.

Abstract

A local ecotype of teosinte (Euchlaena mexicana Schrad.) and eight different maize (Zea mays L.) genotypes were crossed to generate eight crosses as well as their eight reciprocals to study the heterosis, nature of associations between dry forage yield and its contributing traits at the phenotypic level in addition to detect the relative importance of each yield component in determining plant dry forage yield variation through path coefficient analysis. The obtained results revealed that the two crosses ((P6 x P1 and P1 x P7) exhibited the maximum heterosis % over better parent for dry forage yield plant-1 in both seasons. These crosses could be considered as promising crosses for teosinte improvement. Correlation coefficients among studied traits indicated that dry forage yield was positively and significantly associated with  tillers plant-1 and leaf area in both crosses  and their reciprocals as well as with  plant height in maize x teosinte crosses and with  protein content in teosinte x maize crosses in both seasons as well as with stem diameter  in 2008 season . The path coefficient analysis indicated that both number of tillers plant-1 and plant height had the highest positive direct effects on dry forage yield plant-1 in both maize x teosinte and teosinte x maize crosses during both seasons. Thus, dry forage yield improvement can be achieved through selection for more tillers and taller plants. 

Keywords

Journal of Plant Production
Volume 2, Issue 6
June 2011
Pages 837-849

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