Canonical interrelationships in morphological characters, yield and nutritional components of corn

Abstract

The increase in the world population, the need to increase food production, both in quantity and quality, becomes increasingly prominent. The objective of this work was to identify the canonical correlations between yield components, morphological characters, micronutrients, bioactive compounds and amino acids in corn. The experimental design used was a randomized block containing 11 treatments arranged in three replications. The treatments consisted of 11 Top Crosses hybrid genotypes, these being made through crosses directed between a narrow genetic base tester hybrid for specific combining ability with 11 S5 inbred lines. It is inferred that groups considered yield components, secondary traits, bioactive compounds, micronutrients and amino acids are dependent. Promising characters are identified for the corn breeding for high yields, nutritional and energetic quality of corn grains. The indirect selection of grains with additions in essential amino acids can be directed to plants with superiority in height, mass and width of grains, phenols, flavonoids, soluble solids and zinc content.