Genetic divergence of transgenic maize in relation to grain productivity and nutritional quality

The aim of this study was to investigate the genetic divergence between genotypes of transgenic maize, in relation to grain productivity and nutritional quality. The experiment was conducted in 2009/2010 in Santa Maria, State of Rio Grande do Sul, on randomized block design with three replicates. Eighteen genotypes were analyzed and the variables were measured after harvest: grain productivity, crude protein, lysine, methionine, cysteine, threonine, tryptophan, valine, isoleucine, leucine, phenylalanine, histidine, arginine, ethereal extract, starch and amylose. An analysis of variance was performed for each variable and the means were compared using the Scott-Knott test. The genotypic correlation matrix was calculated, multicollinearity was evaluated and a contribution analysis was performed. Dissimilarity matrix between genotypes was determined by Mahalanobis generalized distance. The genotypes were grouped using the Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Mean (UPGMA) and the cophenetic correlation coefficient was calculated to validate the grouping. The group means were compared using the t-test for independent samples. There is genetic divergence between genotypes of transgenic maize. Variables amylose, ethereal extract and cysteine showed the greatest contribution to genetic divergence. Based on grain productivity, crude protein, lysine, cysteine, tryptophan, ethereal extract and amylase, there are four genotype groups of transgenic maize.