Genetic evaluation of maize germplasm lines against turcicum leaf blight (Exserohilum turcicum (Pass))

Fifty new promising germplasm were screened against Turcicum leaf blight of maize with CM-202 as susceptible check under artificial ephiphytotic conditions. Among all the germplasm lines only 6.0% recorded resistant reaction to TLB, 46.0% moderately resistant (MR), 23.0% moderately susceptible (MS) and 10.0% were completely susceptible(S). The PCV was higher than GCV for TLB indicating the importance of environmental factors. Heritability (broad sense) was low for TLB (0.189) but high for 100 seed weight (0.985). Similarly, phenotypic correlation matrix revealed that TLB had significant negative correlation with 100 seed weight (−0.73) and so also with yield/row (−0.39) indicating that as the incidence of TLB increases there is reduction in test weight.