Correlation and Principal Component Analysis on Main Agronomic Characters of New Fresh Waxy Corn Varieties

Chen Bingjie; Lü Yingying; Zhang Enying; Zhang Baowang

doi:10.14083/j.issn.1001-4942.2017.07.004

Abstract：In order to provide some theoretical references for comprehensive assessment and breeding of new fresh waxy corn varieties, taking 5 excellent fresh waxy corn varieties as materials, the correlation and principal component analysis of 13 traits, plant height, ear height, ear weight, ear diameter, axis diameter, ear length, bald tip length, ear rows, kernels per row, 100-kernel weight, fresh ear yield, male spike length, tassel branch number, were conducted.The results showed that there was very significant positive correlation of fresh ear yield with ear weight, 100-kernel weight, ear diameter, kernels per row and ear length.The principal component analysis showed that the accumulative contribution rates of the first 3 principal components, fresh ear yield factor, male spike factor and bald tip length factor, reached to 87.2767%, which could generally represent the genetic characteristics of 13 characters.The first principal component was the main index of selecting and judging the excellent fresh waxy corn varieties, which had the characteristics of bigger ear, larger ear diameter and smaller axis diameter.That was to say, the kernel should be deeper, the kernel number per ear should not be too much, the 100-kernel weight and plant height should be higher.The second principal component showed that the male spike should be longer, the branch number was not too much, the male spike branch number should be as low as possible while the male spike could provide enough pollen for female spike.The third principal component showed that the bald tip length could affect the commercial quality of fresh waxy corn, so the bald tip length should be controlled within the minimum standard in the process of variety assessment and breeding.