Characterization and genetic divergence of corn populations rescued from the region southeastern of Minas Gerais

Abstract

The objective of this work was to characterize and evaluate corn populations rescued from the southeastern of Minas Gerais, concerning potential yield and genetic divergence. Were used quantitative and qualitative descriptors of corncob and caryopsis to discrimination of populations. The experiment was installed in a randomized complete block design with two replications. Were evaluated four commercial hybrids, five landraces populations and seven farmers' field populations. Sixteen descriptors were applied to the germoplasm, being nine quantitative and seven qualitative. For quantitative descriptors genetic divergence was estimated based on canonical variables. For qualitative descriptors, cluster analysis was applied based on the method of optimization of Tocher, where the distance to multicategory data was the measure of dissimilarity between genotypes. There is genetic variability between the populations evaluated considering the descriptors in question. The quantitative descriptors that contributed most to the genetic divergence between the genotypes were number of grain rows, grain width and cob diameter. Some populations may have been crossed with commercial hybrids in rural properties and some populations have potential to be used in breeding programs, therefore this information on similarity should be used altogether.