Abstract
Maize is one of the most important staple food crops in many parts of Ethiopia. However, it is not used extensively due to its poor nutritional quality and low productivity. It lacks two essential amino acids, namely, lysine and tryptophan. Knowledge of the interrelationships of grain yield and its various causal (contributory) components is very helpful to improve the efficiency of breeding programs using appropriate selection indices. This article reports the findings of a study conducted to determine the nature of relationships of grain yield and its contributing components and to identify those components with significant effects on yield with the intention of using them as selection criteria using path coefficient analysis (PCA). Therefore, PCA has shown that yield per hectare had a significant and positive phenotypic correlation with plant height, ear height, number of kernels per row, and 100-grain weight. Moreover, PCA had a significant and positive genotypic correlation with days to 50% tasseling, plant height, ear height, and 100-grain weight. The highest direct positive effect on yield per hectare was exhibited by ear height. The findings of this study showed that most genotypes are early maturing and are suitable for areas with short rainy seasons and prone to drought.
Highlights
Zea mays L. (Poaceae) is an important annual food crop of the world
Maize accounts for about 15 to 56% of the total daily calories in diets of people in several developing countries in Africa and Latin America, where animal protein is scarce and expensive [1]. It is produced for food among low-income families in Ethiopia and served in different dishes. ough several hundred million people depend on maize, its common variety lacks two essential amino acids, namely, lysine and tryptophan, which are required in the biosynthesis of proteins [2]. erefore, the discovery of the recessive allele of the opaque-2 maize gene was a significant breakthrough in the alleviation of global protein deficiency
Some researchers reported similar observations, e.g., [11, 16,17,18,19,20,21,22]. e researchers observed that plant height, ear aspect, ear height, ear length, grains per row, and 100-grain weight or grain yield were positively and significantly inter-correlated implying that hybrids with these traits possess high yield potential
Summary
Zea mays L. (Poaceae) is an important annual food crop of the world. It is the source of primary staple food as well as protein and calorie for millions of people in the world. Maize accounts for about 15 to 56% of the total daily calories in diets of people in several developing countries in Africa and Latin America, where animal protein is scarce and expensive [1]. It is produced for food among low-income families in Ethiopia and served in different dishes. E high level of lysine and tryptophan amino acids in the maize endosperm protein is due to the presence of the recessive allele of the opaque-2 gene in the genome of mutant maize [3]. QPM contains nearly twice as much usable protein as other maize varieties grown in the tropics and yields 10% more grain than traditional maize varieties [2]
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