In the process of plant breeding the application of relevant breeding criteria is very important. The Path analysis is broadly applied with the aim to define yield components that mostly determine the yield and that can be used as quality breeding criteria. However, the significance of revealed relationships between yield and yield components can be affected by various factors, such as diverse genetic material that is observed, traits included into analysis, environments in which the material is observed, as well as, the applied statistic approach to determine the nature of the relationships itself. The interrelationships of yield and yield components of 15 commercial maize hybrids were observed using the Path and factor analyses. According to results of Path analysis, plant height, ear diameter and grain moisture had highly significant genetic and phenotypic direct effects on grain yield. At the same time, factor analysis points out significant effects of two factors on grain yield. Factor 1 was mostly determined by ear length and number of kernels per row, while grain moisture content, ear and cob diameter mostly determined Factor 2. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. TR 31068]

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This study conforms our hypothesis that there are elite maize inbred lines, which can be considered actual and prestigious as they have not only a property of the water status and a greater grain dry down rate during the maturation period, but also a property of the efficient photosynthetic-fluorescence model that is successfully used in the contemporary processes of breeding, and thereby in the development of new and yielding maize hybrids. Presented results obtained on the dynamics of grain dry down during the maturation period and on photosynthetic-fluorescence parameters (temperature dependence of the chlorophyll delayed fluorescence intensity, the Arrhenius plot for the determination of critical temperatures, i.e. phase transition temperatures and the activation energy) show that properties of the observed inbreeds are based on effects and nature of conformational and functional changes occurring in their thylakoid membranes and other chemical structures of grain tissues. Summarized results of studies on actual and prestigious properties of maize inbreeds will contribute to more exact, rational and expeditious proceedings of contemporary processes of breeding

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Genetic potential of maize hybrids grown in Serbia is 10-15 t ha-1 , while the average yields are considerably lower. There are many reasons for this. At first, it is well known that drought is present often in some parts of country. Some soils are not suitable in the same degree for intensive maize production, application of mineral fertilizers is insufficient, mechanization is outdated and arable farms are small and fragmented. During the period 19652012 high variations in precipitation were present during the maize vegetation. The yearly average precipitation sum was 688.9 mm, with 397.5 mm during vegetation. According to precipitation amount, years were divided into groups: I 200-300 mm 7, (15%); II 301-400 mm 21, (44%) and III 401-500 mm 14, (30%), and IV in 5 years (11%) more than 500 mm of precipitation was present. The highest average yield in Serbia was achieved in 1991 (5.95 t ha-1) and the lowest in 2000 (2.44 t ha-1). The average yield increase was 114 kg ha-1 per year from 1965 to 1985, and it was 22 kg ha-1 per year from 1986 to 2012. In experiments during the period 1998-2012, when the standard cropping technology (MSY) was applied, the average grain yield was10.46 t ha-1 for hybrids of FAO 300-400, 10.39 t ha-1 for hybrids from FAO 500 and 11.38 for FAO 600-700. There were no significant differences in yield between hybrids from examined FAO groups. According to this, average maize yield includes only 44.2% for FAO 300-400, 44.5% for FAO 500 and 40.6% for FAO 600700 utilized maize genetic potential. The significant improvement of maize production demand the strategic long-term program, where it will be elaborated: merging of land properties, increasing of the areas with irrigation and increasing of the technology level in maize cropping. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. TR-31037]

Due to the interaction and noise in the experiments, yield trails for studying varieties are carried out in numerous locations and in the course of several years. Data of such trials have three principle tasks: to evaluate precisely and to predict the yield on the basis of limited experimental data; to determine stability and explain variability in the response of genotypes across locations; and to be a good guide for the selection of the best genotype for sowing under new agroecological conditions. The yield prediction without the inclusion of the interaction with the environments is incomplete and imprecise. Therefore, a great deal of breeding and agronomic studies are devoted to observing of the interaction via multilocation trials with replicates with the aim to use the interaction to obtain the maximum yield in any environment. Fifteen maize hybrids were analyzed in 24 environments. As the interaction participates in the total sum of squares with 6%, and genotypes with 2%, the interaction deserves observations more detailed than the classical analysis of variance (ANOVA) provides it. With a view to observe the interaction effect in detail in order to prove better understanding of genotypes, environments and their interactions AMMI (Additive Main Effect and Multiplicative Interaction) and the cluster analysis were applied. The partition of the interaction into the principal components by the PCA analysis (Principal Components Analysis) revealed a part of systematic variations in the interaction. These variations are attributed to the length of the growing season in genotypes and to the precipitation sum during the growing season in environments. Results of grouping by the cluster analysis are in high accordance with grouping observed in the biplot of the AMMI1 model

Due to an unknown mechanism of genetic control and great environmental effects in the process of trait expression, morphological markers are often considered unreliable indicators of genetic relationships. Morphological characterization of 19 maize inbreds was done according to the UPOV descriptor, while molecular characterization was performed with RAPD markers. Based on the estimation of phenotypes according to the UPOV descriptor, the squared Euclidean distance was calculated and then, on the basis of this distance, a morphological similarity matrix was formed. Jaccard similarity coefficients were calculated on the basis of presence absence of bands on gels in the RAPD analysis. When data were standardized, the comparison between morphological and genetic similarity of observed maize inbreds was done. The correlations varied from 0.47 (inbred L 217) to 0.76 (inbred L 86). The average value of correlations for all studied inbreds amounted to 0.64. Furthermore, the results of the cluster analysis for both markers, molecular and morphological, had high concordance with pedigree data. Environmental effects were decreased in morphological markers (according to the UPOV descriptor) by rescaling a measurement scale from a scale to an ordinal level of measurement and in such a way results of morphological markers approached results of molecular markers in the estimation of the genetic distance (GD) of maize inbred lines

The initial idea of this study was a hypothesis that erect leaf maize inbred lines were characterized by properties of an efficient photo-model and that as such were very desirable in increasing the number of plants per area unit (plant density) in the process of contemporary selection and seed production. The application of a non-invasive bioluminescence-photosynthetic method, suitable for the efficiency estimation of the photo-model, verified the hypothesis. Obtained photosynthetic properties of observed erect leaf maize inbred lines were based on the effects and characteristics of thermal processes of delayed chlorophyll fluorescence occurring in their thylakoid membranes. The temperature dependence of the delayed chlorophyll fluorescence intensity phase transitions (critical temperatures) in the thylakoid membranes and activation energy are the principal parameters of the thermal processes. Based on obtained photosynthetic properties it is possible to select erect leaf maize inbred lines that are resistant and tolerant to high and very high temperatures, as well as, to drought. They could be good and efficient photo-models wherewith