LUANA DE OLIVEIRA RODRIGUES
Abstract:
In breeding programs, a basic condition for the success of the selection is the existence of genetic variability in level appropriate to the goals. As a species, maize (Zea mays L.) is characterized by a wide variability (local or indigenous races, adapted populations and exotic or semiexotic germplasm. The present study was conducted to generate information about the potential of productivity and variability as well as the effects of inbreeding in four semiexotic populations. For that purpose, non inbred families (full-sibs) and inbded families (S1) were evaluated in experiments designed as complete blocks with three replications. The following primary traits were evaluated: total weight of unhusked ear, total grain weight, plant height, ear height, ear length, ear diameter and rate of disease resistance; final stand, number of ears per plot and number of lodged plants were also recorded. In general, the semi-exotic populations PAQs had an excellent pattern of genetic variability, which indicates favorable prospects for driving a recurrent selection program aiming mainly to increased productivity. The best populations were the populations PAQ PAQ-02-01e, with production (PE) of 54.6% and 57.5% of witnesses. For grain weight, these values represent 49.6% and 54.8%, respectively. The data analysis is a good potential for productivity populations semiexóticas, indicating viability of introgression of exotic germplasm for earliness. The average of the four families of selfing populations had higher ear weight, and their families S1 showed sufficient variability to be explored in recurrent selection programs
