Phenotypical Variability of “TURDA” Maize Germplasm for Grain Chemical Composition
Maize grain has many and diverse uses in the food and feed industry. The diversity of applications requires characteristics of quality in accordance to that. To examine phenotypical diversity in the grain content, it was evaluated a total of 754 maize samples: 265 local populations (landraces); 59 synthetics/composites; 430 “TURDA” inbred lines for their grain quality attributes. Comparison of the inbred lines diversity is on average the most divergent in grain starch concentration (range value 19.9) from landraces (range value 11.8) and synthetics (range value 12.5). The grain oil and ash content showed high variability among the genotypes. The quality attributes in most of the cases showed positive phenotypic correlation except grain starch contents which was negatively correlated at phenotypic levels. The objective of this study was to evaluate the potential of maize “TURDA” germplasm in according to its grain quality content, such as: protein, oil, fiber, ash and starch concentration; to estimate the extent of phenotypical variability and correlation for various quality components to formulate a selection criterion in a breeding program.