RETRACTED: Variability among maize (Zea mays L.) inbred lines for agro- morphological traits

Abstract

Variability analysis of maize inbred lines enables increased genetic gain in the maize breeding program. During spring to summer season (March to July) of 2022, we conducted a field experiment in Rampur, Chitwan, Nepal, where we evaluated 24 inbred lines of maize in α-lattice design with three replications to study genetic variability for growth and yield traits. The results of this study showed that growth and yield traits were subject to significant phenotypic and genotypic variation. The anthesis-silking interval (ASI) had the highest genotypic coefficient of variation (39.28%) and phenotypic coefficient of variation (42.81%) in comparison to other traits. Thousand-kernel weight was found to have 87% broad-sense heritability, while as ASI had 91% broad-sense heritability. The grain yield had the highest genetic advance (GA) value, which was followed by leaf area (86.21%). Four inbred line clusters were made using the Euclidean Average Linkage technique. The maximum distance (722.37) between cluster centroids in the cluster analysis suggests that clusters 2 and 4 had the greatest genetic dissimilarity. Inbred RML-76 (2262.2 kg ha-1) and RML-17 (2069.94 kg ha-1) produced the highest grain yields, respectively. The correlation analysis between grain yield and the number of kernel rows per ear (r = 0.79**), the number of kernels per kernel row (r = 0.79**), the length of the ear (r = 0.77**), and the thousand grain weight (r = 0.76**) was positive and significant.The results of our study suggested that maize productivity can be increased by utilizing genetic variability and indirect selection for traits with a high correlation to grain yield, high heritability, and high GA.