Agro-Morphological and Chemical Traits Diversity in Nine Maize (Zea mays L.) Genotypes.

Diversity of traits is a major need of any plant breeding program that concerns the natural evolution and causes sustainable plant production under various environments. Phenotypic variations based on agro-morphological and chemical traits of nine maize genotypes were studied under field and laboratory conditions during 2015 at the experimental farm of the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Qlyasan in Iraq. The genotypes differed significantly for all traits studied. Fajr 260 was the tallest plant. Talar was the latest genotype for number of days to tasseling and silking while Es-Solito 635 needed the maximum number of days for harvesting. The best performances of number of kernels per row, the number of kernels per ear and kernels yield were observed by genotypes Btaris and Cantabpis. Plant height, number of kernels per row, ear weight and kernel weight per ear were the most influential characters that conferred to the genetic diversity. Data indicated a wide range of variation among maize genotypes for traits of oil and protein contents. Talar had the maximum kernel oil and ash content; whereas, Iranian genotypes exhibited the lowest values of all chemical composition traits. The results of the principal component analysis (PCA) showed that the first two components accounted for more than 62.35% of total variation. Cluster analysis based on 23 traits exhibited three distinct clusters. High similarity was observed between Cantapbis and Bataris. At the same time, ZP434xA and Talar were more differentiated from others. This information about the genetic diversity may be utilized in the future maize breeding programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]