Department of Plant Breeding, Rajendra Agricultural University, Pusa Dholi Campus, P. O. Dholi 843121.
* Present address for correspondence: Bihar Agricultural College, Sabour, Bhagalpur 813 210.
Sixty four genotypes of maize (Zea mays L.) belonging to different geographical regions of the world were tested under six different environments with a view to assess the impact of environmentson the expression of genetic diversity. There was better expression of genetic diversity under winter environment than in rainy season, which indicated the need to conduct such analysis under more favourable environmental conditions to have a better picture of genetic differentiation between genotypes. The results also reflected that pairs of genotypes showing consistent D2 value across the environments should be utilized in the breeding programme to evolve high yielding stable varieties.
Genetic diversity, Mahalanobis' D2 statistic, stability, combining ability, maize
