Comparison of different methods for identification of maize populations (Yea mays l.) as sources for elite hybrid improvement

Abstract

Choice of adequate sources of new favorable alleles to be included in elite maize (Zea mays L.) hybrids improvement programs is of the main interest for maize breeders. The objectives of this study were: to evaluate potential of seven maize populations as donors of new favorable alleles to improve the hybrid B73 x Mo17 for grain yield, ear length, number of rows, and weight of 1000 kernels, using 5 methods; to compare results obtained by the calculation of rank corellation coefficient (rs) after Spearman, as well as Kendall's coefficient of concordance (W) (Falconer, 1989). All evaluated maize populations had positive values of 1 (P) over bar (1)mu statistics proposed by Dudley (1987) for all traits. It confirms that broad based sources as favorable allele carriers could be useful in elite hybrid parents improvement. High level of agreement between three applied methods for maize populations evaluation as sources of favorable alleles were obtained for all investigated traits. The strongest corellation relationship between method proposed by Dudley (1987) and (X) over bar TC were calculated for number of rows (rs = 1**) and ear length (rs = 0.964**).