Multivariate Analysis of Grain Yield and Its Attributing Traits in Different Maize Hybrids Grown under Heat and Drought Stress.

Fawad Ali,Irshad Bibi,Nabeel Khan Niazi,Muhammmad Ahsan,Naila Kanwal,Qurban Ali

doi:10.1155/2015/563869

Abstract

This study was carried out to evaluate F1 single cross-maize hybrids in four crop growing seasons (2010–2012). Morphological traits and physiological parameters of twelve maize hybrids were evaluated (i) to construct seed yield equation and (ii) to determine grain yield attributing traits of well-performing maize genotype using a previously unexplored method of two-way hierarchical clustering. In seed yield predicting equation photosynthetic rate contributed the highest variation (46%). Principal component analysis data showed that investigated traits contributed up to 90.55% variation in dependent structure. From factor analysis, we found that factor 1 contributed 49.6% variation (P < 0.05) with primary important traits (i.e., number of leaves per plant, plant height, stem diameter, fresh leaves weight, leaf area, stomata conductance, substomata CO2 absorption rate, and photosynthetic rate). The results of two-way hierarchical clustering demonstrated that Cluster III had outperforming genotype H12 (Sultan × Soneri) along with its most closely related traits (photosynthetic rate, stomata conductance, substomata CO2 absorption rate, chlorophyll contents, leaf area, and fresh stem weight). Our data shows that H12 (Sultan × Soneri) possessed the highest grain yield per plant under environmentally stress conditions, which are most likely to exist in arid and semiarid climatic conditions, such as in Pakistan.

Highlights

Maize (Zea mays L.) is one of the most commonly cultivated crop worldwide [1, 2]
Showed that Duncan’s Multiple Range Test PCA (DMRT) provided a significant importance to differentiate the pair of means while examining the effect of morphophysiological and agronomic traits on grain yield in maize hybrids
We showed that photosynthetic rate contributed the maximum variation (Table 1) in seed yield predicted equation but it could be biased as previous literature reported the error effect of stepwise regression [19] while handling a large number of independent variables

Summary

Introduction

Heat and drought stress have emerged as a common problem worldwide which can reduce maize crop productivity [3]. The right choice of maize genotypes for a given region is a crucially important practice to obtain high grain yield of different maize hybrids [4]. In addition to heat and drought stress, intraseasonal and interseasonal water availability variation are another common and significant problem that can lead to decrease grain yield of maize hybrids in various regions of the world [8]. It is a wellknown fact that high temperature stress and low irrigation regimes can limit certain factors in maize plant, thereby decreasing plant biomass below the target (7.5 tons/acre) levels [10, 11]

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