A major obstacle in corn (
Zea mays
L.) breeding programs
is how to obtain strains which, when combined, ensure
increased productivity in all crop characteristics. Therefore,
the objective of this study was to evaluate the prediction
efficiency of hybrid maize using diallel analysis and the best
linear unbiased predictor (BLUP). Eight synthetic varieties
were sown in a diallel scheme and the hybrid and their
parents were then evaluated in three separate environments;
both combining ability and predicted breeding values
(BLUPs) were estimated. Correlations between the BLUP
and combining abilities were also obtained. Combining
ability analysis revealed that both additive and non-additive
types of gene action were important in the studied traits.
There was a moderate to high correlation between the mean
square of the combining ability and the predicted breeding
values. This shows that BLUP can be used to select the
best parents for different traits, especially for ear height and
ear position, which had the highest correlations. The parent
VAR-01 had significant general combining ability (GCA)
values, and it can be used in crosses to reduce plant height,
ear height, and ear position while the parent VAR-06 can
participate in crosses to increase ear height, plant height,
and ear position. The result obtained for combining ability
was moderately to highly consistent with BLUP results, but
selection must be carefully undertaken.
