Genetic diversity studies in newly developed early maturing yellow inbred lines of maize (Zea mays L.)

Abstract

The present study was conducted to know the genetic diversity among newly developed early maturing yellow inbred lines of maize during Kharif 2017 at Experimental Farm, SAREC, Kangra. In this experiment, forty one inbred lines and two checks were evaluated and observations were recorded for twelve quantitative traits. Analysis of variance revealed significant difference among all inbred lines. Inbred lines were grouped into nine clusters, indicating the presence of genetic diversity. The genotypes were grouped into nine clusters. Cluster III comprised the maximum genotypes (16) which indicated the genetic similarity among them. The highest inter-cluster distance (29.33) was observed between clusters VIII and IV followed by clusters VII and IV (28.01), clusters IV and IV (24.4), clusters IX and IV (23.86), clusters VIII and II (21.66), clusters VII and II (21.48) and clusters IV and III (20.71), suggesting wider diversity between them and the genotypes in these cluster could be used as parents for maize hybrid development. The maximum intra-cluster distance was observed in cluster III (10.26) and the cluster IV was had the least intra cluster distance (6.96). The mean values of cluster II had relatively less days to anthesis and silking, bold grain size, more number of kernels rows/ear and the maximum yielding ability. Cluster IV also showed more kernel weight and reasonable yielding capacity. Plant height and 1000- kernel weight had the greatest contribution to genetic divergence, whereas, other characters like grain yield per plant, ear height, ear length, tassel length, days to silking, days to anthesis, leaf width, number of rows/ear and ear girth contributed very little for divergence.