Environmental response of native maize populations of the southeast of Coahuila, Mexico

Introduction : The climate change consequences have been manifested on the environmental condition’s changes (temperature, rainfall, frost, drought, and soil salinity), then, the analysis of maize genetic diversity and their environment interaction is suggested. The objectives of this research were to determine the yield potential, the response to different environments of 63 maize landrace populations representative of the genetic variation in the southeast of Coahuila, Mexico. Method : The agronomic evaluation of native maize populations of eight racial groups was carried out in the spring-summer cycle in 2013 in two contrasted and representative locations of the environmental conditions in the southeast of Coahuila. Blocks were established independently within each location, and, in one location, blocks were different planting date. The blocks × location combinations were considered different environments to explore and make an interpretation of the genotype by environment interaction. In this paper, the response to the environment is analyzed based on grain yield and days to male flowering. Results : Eight populations were identified with an outstanding average yielding potential across environments, with values between 7.4 and 8.5 t ha -1 , mainly representative from the Tuxpeno, Raton and Tuxpeno Norteno races. Populations adapted to transition-high altitude areas had an average yield reduction of 4.1 t ha -1 (55.0 %) after been exposed to intermediate altitude conditions. Discussion or Conclusion : The graphic interpretation of the genotype x environment interaction allowed to identify and to group the genotypes with specific adaptation in the environments of evaluation, as well as the ones with an average performance across environments. Twenty-two populations were identified with adaptation to transition- high altitude conditions, 14 to intermediate altitude areas and 27 populations with an average performance across environments.