Assessment of genetic diversity of maize (Zea mays L.) hybrids under water logging condition

Abstract

The screening of fifty five CIMMYT maize hybrids was carried out to estimate the genetic diversity which was evaluated undermanaged waterlogged or excess soil moisture condition, indicated presence of considerable diversity. The experiment was conducted in an alpha lattice design with two replication and phenotypic data were analyzed using fifteen agro-morphological traits. The fifty five maize single cross hybrids grouped into eight clusters based on Mahalanobis D2 statistic. Among them cluster I accommodated maximum number of inbred lines (41) followed by cluster V (8). Presence of six solitary clusters indicated larger genetic diversity. The character plant height showed highest contribution towards genetic divergence followed by number of kernel per row, ear height, number of rows per ear, grain weight per plot and 100 seed weight. Based upon the divergence studies suggesting crossing may be made between genotypes of cluster II (P3502) and V (ZH17505, ZH17507, ZH17497, ZH15567, ZH15557, ZH15564, ZH15563 and ZH15562), and the hybrid in these cluster could be used as donor parents for new double cross maize hybrid development for improving yield under water logging condition.

Keywords

• genetic diversity
• mahalanobis d2 statistic
• water logging and clusters