Evaluation of Diversity of Maize Germplasm of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Terms of Some Yield Parameters

Evaluation of the starting material of Azerbaijani corn germplasm constitutes our aim. The material of the study consists of 110 unrelated homozygous maize genotypes collected from different agro-climatic zones of Azerbaijan. The study was carried out in Zagatala of Azerbaijan Republic in 2021 and in Baku in 2022. Augmented design models, cluster analysis and principal component analysis (PCA) were used to obtain genetic polymorphism data of economically valuable traits of the collection. Grain yield, 1000 kernel weigh, hectolitre weight, seed weight per cob, and seed number per cob were studied in the study in 110 maize genotypes. Cluster analysis was performed to evaluate the differences and similarities among genotypes and to separate them into different clusters according to the studied traits. Principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to quantitative data sets to group the samples. According to the evaluation, significant differences were detected among 110 genotypes. Two principal components (PC1 & PC2) showed the presence of more than 73.73% diversity in the collection. Grain yield, 1000 kernel weigh, hectolitre weight, seed weight per cob, and seed number per cob are the main traits that contribute significantly to the diversity. Clustering of the collection identified 11 distinct clusters that may be useful in developing pure lines with different heterosis ability strengths. In future studies, it is recommended to continue breeding studies in some maize genotypes evaluated as promising in terms of some yield parameters and to conduct more detailed studies using other molecular marker techniques.