The multivariate index allows the selection of white-grain maize hybrids in contrasting environments

Maize is a crop of great economic, social and cultural importance in many countries worldwide, especially in Mexico. The objective of this work was to use a multivariate index to select white grain maize hybrids through agronomic and physiological traits obtained in two environments. A factorial design (2 × 15) was used: two environments (E1 and E2) and 15 hybrids, with four replications. The analysis of variance showed highly significant differences for all nine agronomic and eight physiological variables evaluated when considering the effect of environment and hybrids. The number of rows per ear and root water potential, did not show interactions between factors. The heritabilities of the agronomic and physiological characteristics ranged from 5.85 to 75.88 and from 42.41 to 99.82%, respectively. High variability was found among hybrids in the two environments for the two sets of traits evaluated. The determination of a multivariate index from the index proposed by Lins Bins (Pi) allowed us to obtain three multivariate indices associated with agronomic (Pim-agro), physiological (Pim-physiol) and their combination (PimAgro+Phisiol) characteristics. The selection through these indices showed that it is possible to identify hybrids with high stability and general adaptability with favorable characteristics in white maize for the evaluated environments and showed the possibility of improving the selection criteria by using of the proposed multivariate index.