Multivariate analysis of variation among traits of corn hybrids traits under drought stress

The present study was conducted to characterize 6 Iranian commercial corn hybrids using multivariate traits. The experiment was conducted at Khorasan Razavi Agricultural Research and Natural Resources Center, Mashhad, I.R. Iran in 2009. Data for 16 characteristics were compiled then subjected to multivariate analysis to study variability within the hybrids. Significant variations were observed among the hybrids for the measured characteristics. Among all hybrids in drought stress, KSC704 with (5.13 ton/ha) produced the highest yield and KSC700 with (3.16 ton/ha) produced the lowest. Correlation coefficients between the studied variables and Total yields showed that only values for Kernel No./row and 10 ear weight were significantly and positively correlated with Total yield under drought condition. We also used cluster analysis (Ward’s method) that included all the investigated characteristics and grain yield under drought stress condition to classify the hybrids in to three groups with low intra-group and high extra-group similarities. The factor analysis identified 16 factors out of which only seven were extracted; results that taken together explained 80% of the variance among the entries.