Inheritance of the flowering time in maize I. Diallel analysis

Abstract

In order to determine the inheritance of the number of days necessary to flowering in maize, four inbred lines in a complete diallel cross were used. It was observed that this trait is controlled by at least three genes or blocks of genes. The number of days necessary for flowering in the early and late blooming lines was 85.3 and 95.3, respectively. Of the inbred lines tested, L-352 presented the greatest number of earliness alleles and L-142 the greatest number of lateness flowering alleles. Both additive and dominant effects are involved in the control of this character, while maternal inheritance is not. Estimated narrow heritability was low (37.67%), indicating that selection based on phenotype is little effective, under the conditions of this test.