Vol. 9, Special Issue 9, Part Y (2025)

An investigation was conducted during Rabi 2024-25 at Wheat and Maize research Unit, VNMKV, Parbhani, entitled “Characterization and Evaluation of Maize (Zea mays L.) inbred lines”. The experiment was conducted using source material of fifty maize inbreds and three checks using ten morphological traits. A study was conducted on fifty-three maize inbred lines to assess genetic diversity, correlation coefficients, and path coefficient analysis for grain yield and its contributing traits. Analysis of variance revealed significant differences among genotypes for all traits indicating considerable genetic variability within the population. Grain yield per plant exhibited significant positive correlations with plant height(cm), ear height(cm), number of grains per ear, and 100-grain weight(g), suggesting that these traits are crucial for improving yield through selection. Path coefficient analysis indicated that 100-grain weight (g) exerted the highest direct effect on grain yield followed by plant height (cm), ear height (cm), days to 50% tasseling, and number of grains per ear.

Genetic divergence assessed using Mahalanobis D² statistics across ten morphological and physiological traits, grouped the genotypes into seven distinct clusters. Cluster I comprised 44 genotypes, Cluster II included 4, while the remaining clusters each contained a single genotype. The inter-cluster distances ranged from 27.78 to 176.00 and intra-cluster distances varied from 0.00 to 23.49 reflecting a high degree of genetic variability both within and between clusters. Among the traits studied number of grains per ear contributed the most to total divergence followed by plant height, 100-grain weight, grain yield per plant and other related traits. These findings underscore the importance of these traits in selecting genetically diverse and high-yielding parental lines for maize improvement programs.