Heritability and Genetic Advance for Grain Yield and its Component Characters in Maize (&lt;i&gt;Zea &lt;/i&gt;&lt;i&gt;M&lt;/i&gt;&lt;i&gt;ays &lt;/i&gt;L.)

Bello O B,Azeez M A,Abdulmaliq S Y,Mahamood J,Afolabi M S,Ige S A

doi:10.5923/j.plant.20120205.01

Abstract

Knowledge of the magnitude of genetic variability, heritability and genetic gains in selection of desirable characters could assist the plant breeder in ascertaining criteria to be used for the breeding programmes. Ten open pollinated maize varieties were evaluated at the Teaching and Research farm, University of Ilorin, Nigeria, during 2005 and 2006 cropping seasons to estimate genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance of grain yield and its component characters. The effect of genotype and genotype by year interaction were significant for ear weight and grain y ield, while the effect of year was highly significant (P< 0.01) for all the characters. High magnitude of phenotypic and genotypic coefficient of variations as well as high heritability along with high genetic advance recorded for grain yield, number of grains ear -1 , ear weight, plant and ear heights provides evidence that these parameters were under the control of additive gene effects and effective select ion could be possible for improvement for these characters. Tze Co mp3 C2, Acr 94 Tze Co mp5, Tze Co mp 4-Dmr Srbc2 and Acr 90 Pool 16-Dt were identified as outstanding genotypes for maize grain yield and should be tested at mu ltilocation for their y ield performance.

Highlights

Maize (Zea mays L.) has high potential for production and productivity in the savanna ecology of sub-Saharan Africa due to high solar radiation and low night temperatures[1,2]
Mean squares due to genotypes and genotype x year interaction were significant for ear weight and grain yield indicating presence of genetic variability for these two traits in the germplas m material studied and they were h ighly infuenced by environmental factors
This invariab ly suggests that maize grain yield could be genetically manipulated fo r its improvement

Summary

Introduction

Maize (Zea mays L.) has high potential for production and productivity in the savanna ecology of sub-Saharan Africa due to high solar radiation and low night temperatures[1,2]. Maize p roduction has progressively increased over the years with estimated national outputs reaching 7.68 million tonnes in 1995[4]. The projected production and demand by the year 2010 is 13.4 million tonnes[5]. In view of the importance of maize in Nigeria, researchers are utilizing availab le genetic resources to reconstruct the ideotype of the plant in order to meet the ever increasing requirements of the population through improvement in grain yield, other desirable agronomic and phenological characters as well as quality[6]

Methods

Results

Conclusion