RELATIONS AMONG SIX MICRONUTRIENTS IN GRAIN DETERMINED IN A MAIZE POPULATION

Limited results are published about the relations among micronutrients in cereal grains, although micronutrients play important physiological roles in animals and humans. The objective of this study was to determine relations among boron (B), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), molybdenum (Mo) and zinc (Zn) concentrations in grain of 297 genotypes of a maize population measured by inductively coupled plasma – optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) in two years. Correlation coefficients showed generally weak, though positive associations between individual micronutrient concentrations in both years. Principal component analysis revealed not the same relations among the micronutrients across two years, indicating the importance of environment. Still, close relations between Cu and Fe, and to lesser extent between B and Mo were observed in both years. Mn was consistently one of the least related micronutrients to others. Our results suggest that it is possible to improve density of various micronutrients in maize grain simultaneously, although the progress would be very slow.