Genetic divergence in maize (Zea mays L.) inbred lines

This study was undertaken during kharif 2014 to investigate the genetic diversity among germplasm of maize and to screen out diversified parent to develop hybrids with high yield potential. Genetic divergences among 50 genotypes of maize inbred lines were estimated by using Mahalanobis D2 statistic. The genotypes were grouped into eight clusters. Cluster I had maximum number of genotypes (16) indicating genetic similarity among them followed by cluster V (9 genotypes), cluster VI (7 genotypes), cluster IV (6 genotypes), cluster II (5 genotypes), cluster VII (4 genotypes), cluster VIII (2 genotypes) and cluster III comprised only one genotype. The inter-cluster distances were larger than the intra-cluster distances suggesting wider genetic diversity among the genotypes of different groups. The highest inter-cluster distance of 1072.856 between clusters I and VIII, followed by clusters III and VI (789.875) suggesting more variability in genetic makeup of the genotypes included in these clusters. The mean maximum grain yield of cluster II was (91.69 g) followed by cluster VII (88.79). The maximum intra-cluster distance was for cluster VI (186.660), followed by cluster VII (161.349), cluster 1 (139.75), cluster VIII (123.457), cluster IV (120.979) and cluster V (120.492).