Linear relations among phenological, morphological, productive and protein-nutritional traits in early maturing and super-early maturing maize genotypes

• The 23 traits of 58 maize genotypes were characterized.
• Was verified there is genetic variability among maize genotypes.
• Was verified linear dependence among traits and traits groups traits.
• Traits can be used for indirect selection as indicative of protein nutritional quality in grains of maize.

The objective of this study was to verify through canonical correlation analysis if there is linear dependence among phenological, morphological, and productive traits with protein-nutritional traits in maize genotypes. The experiments were carried out in a randomized block design with three repetitions. In one experiment, 36 early maturing maize genotypes were evaluated and in another experiment 22 super-early maturing maize genotypes. The canonical groups were determined and structural equation models were elaborated. The matrix of phenotypic correlation coefficients among 23 traits was determined. Thereafter, the multicollinearity diagnosis was conducted within each group of traits. The canonical correlation analysis was performed within the groups: phenological versus protein-nutritional, morphological versus protein-nutritional, and productive versus protein-nutritional. In early maturing maize genotypes, the canonical correlations were not significant among groups of traits showing that the traits cannot be used as indicative of protein-nutritional quality in the indirect selection of plants. Moreover, in super-early maturing maize genotypes, the significant canonical correlation among phenological versus protein-nutritional traits and among productive versus protein-nutritional indicate that the traits number of days from sowing to female flowering, number of ears, and grain yield can be used for indirect selection as indicative of protein nutritional quality in maize grains.