Genetic analysis of drought adaptive traits in maize synthetic populations

Maize breeders consider tolerance to drought as an important criterion in commercial breeding programs. Two traits, stay green and anthesis-silking interval seem to be closely associated with drought tolerance. The main objective of this study was to obtain estimates of means, variability, heritability and estimates of genetic correlations for several traits in two maize synthetic populations. S1 progenies were evaluated in an incomplete block design in four environments. Large genetic variability existed for all traits in both populations but highest variability was found for anthesis-silking interval. Strong, highly significant correlations between drought adaptive traits and grain moisture may cause some undesirable correlative response throughout cycles of selection.