Linear associations among phenological, morphological, productive, and energetic-nutritional traits in corn

The objective of this work was to verify if there is linear dependence between the phenological, morphological, and productive traits and the energetic-nutritional ones in early maturing and super-early maturing corn genotypes. A total of 36 early maturing and 22 super-early maturing corn genotypes were evaluated in a randomized complete block design with three replicates, and the phenological, morphological, productive, and energetic-nutritional traits were measured. The matrix of phenotypic correlation coefficients among traits was determined; the multicollinearity diagnosis was carried out within each group of traits; and the canonical correlation analysis was performed. Linear dependence was observed between the groups of phenological, morphological, and productive traits and of the energetic-nutritional ones. In early maturing genotypes, significant canonical correlation shows the existence of linear dependence between the morphological and energetic-nutritional traits. The significant canonical pair shows that taller plants have lower amylose contents in the grains and reduced nitrogen-corrected apparent metabolizable energy. In super-early maturing genotypes, significant canonical correlations of the phenological, morphological, and productive traits with the energetic-nutritional ones indicate that a greater number of days from sowing to female flowering and ear insertion height, as well as a lower number of ears, increase ether extract contents in the grains. Resumo: O objetivo deste trabalho foi verificar se há dependência linear entre caracteres fenológicos, morfológicos e produtivos e os nutricionais energéticos, em genótipos de milho de ciclo precoce e superprecoce. Foram avaliados 36 genótipos de milho de ciclo precoce e 22 de ciclo superprecoce, em delineamento de blocos ao acaso, com três repetições, tendo-se mensurado caracteres fenológicos, morfológicos, produtivos e nutricionais energéticos. Foi determinada a matriz de coeficientes de correlação fenotípica entre os caracteres; realizado o diagnóstico de multicolinearidade em cada grupo de caracteres; e feita a análise de correlação canônica. Observou-se dependência linear entre os grupos de caracteres fenológicos, morfológicos e produtivos e os de caracteres nutricionais energéticos. Em genótipos de ciclo precoce, a correlação canônica significativa mostra a existência de dependência linear entre os caracteres morfológicos e os nutricionais energéticos. O par canônico significativo mostr