Genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance estimates in maize (Zea mays L.) inbred lines

Forty three genotypes of maize were evaluated for eleven traits at the College Farm, College of Agriculture, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad to study the genetic divergence and various genetic parameters. There was a significant (P<0.01) difference between genotypes for all the characters, which revealed wide range of variability and high heritability for all the characters. The genetic advance as percent of mean was high for grain yield per plant (73.19%), ear height (51.05%), number of kernels per row (44.40%), plant height (43.46%), 100 grain weight (42.88%), ear length (30.79%), number of kernel rows per ear (25.23%), and ear girth (22.37%) indicating additive gene action for these traits. D2 analysis partitioned the forty three genotypes in to six clusters. The maximum inter cluster distance (39.38) was observed between cluster I and cluster V. Grain yield per plant (38.43%), plant height (14.29%), 100 grain weight (12.85%) and number of kernels per row (12.07%) contributed greatly towards diversity.