The objective of this work was to study the genetic control of thermal demand for maize flowering initiation. Two contrasting lines were crossed and used with the F1, F2 RC1 and RC2 derived populations. The trait day-degrees between sown and flowering per plant were evaluated to obtain the estimates of components of variance and means. All models of mean components had R² values near 100%, and then the simple additive-dominant model was considered. Considering the components of variance the model with additive, dominant and environment variance explained the genetic control of maize flowering. The results of the estimated components allowed to conclude that genetic control of earlyness in maize is oligogenic with presence of dominance. Moreover, high values of estimate heritability coefficient indicate the possibility of success with individual phenotypic selection.
1. Zea mays L.; 2. Genetic components; 3. Heritability
