GENETIC ARCHITECTURE OF AN IMPROVED VERSION OF A MAIZE COMPOSITE. I. GENETIC ANALYSIS OF GRAIN YIELD, YIELD COMPONENTS AND SOME AGRONOMIC TRAITS

Abstract

Improved version (C3) developed from a commercial maize composite (Super-I) was studied to estimate the components of genetic variances for grain yield, yield components, and some agronomic traits during the main season of 1982 and 1983. Design-I of Comstock and Robinson was used to estimate the genetic variances. All the characters except grain yield exhibited greater importance of additive components of variance with dominance in the negligible to partial range; whereas both the components played a major role in the inheritance of grain yield. Dominance variance was, however, highly inconsistant over environments and had significant G x E interaction for almost all the traits.