Morphological diversity in maize landraces in Tabasco state, Mexico

Abstract

In regard to characterizing ears and identifying races in native maize varieties and making a distribution map, during 2008 to 2010 were collected samples based on the knowing the presence of these kind of maize. There were used 10 representative ears for getting information of quantitative and qualitative traits on each sample. There were gotten 39 maize collections in five municipalities of Tabasco state, given by 37 farmers in 26 locations. There were utilized the principal components analysis methodology, for grouping landraces according to the traits measured. The racial classification of the collections indicate that in 30.8% of them, were found three racial groups: Tuxpeño, Olotillo and Tepecintle. There were identifyied intermediate shapes among the racial groups in 69.2% of the samples. It indicates the maize genetic diversity in Tabasco state. The most important race was Tuxpeño with 25.6% of the samples. The first three components created by the ACP explained 70% of the variability of each race. The traits that having more influence were: long and diameter ear, the relation long/diameter, rows number, number of grains by row, and thickness of grain, The projections of the principal components 1 (CP1) and 2 (CP2) separated three groups of populations.