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Selection of breeding methods for plant genetic improvement largely depends on the genetic basis of selected traits. This research was carried out in order to study the genetic parameters of phenological and morphological traits , yield and yield components of maize using generation mean analysis of inbred lines derived from crosses KE72012 (P1) × K1263 / 1 (P2) inbred lines. This study was conducted at Torough Station of Khorasan Razavi Agriculture and Natural Resources Research Center, Mashhad, Iran, during 2012. Six maize generations include BC2, BC1, F2, F1, P2 and P1 was evaluated in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. Analysis of variance showed higher dominance gene effects than additive effects. Average dominance gene effects (H / D) ½ in all measured traits, showed complete and over dominance gene effects indicating the importance of dominance effect in studied traits. A simple additive-dominance model performed using weighted least square analysis. Results showed not it’s adequacy for traits, indicating the importance of epistatic effects in controlling genetic variations. Broad sense heritability for all measured traits in crosses KE72012 (P1) × KE1263 / 1 (P2) ranged between 0.10 to 0.88 and the range of narrow sense heritability in this cross was between 0.02 to 0.59. Estimation of number of genes controlling grain yield showed that the one to five genes are involved in KE72012 (P1) × K1263 / 1 (P2).

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Yarrow plant or plain short type yarrow, known as Achillea wilhelmsii C. kock, belongs to Asteraceae family. The present study was conducted in order to evaluate three different yarrow populations for determination of their genetic relationship, using morphological traits in the form of nested design as completely randomized with ten replications. General heritability of all traits ranged from 98 to 100, indicating a high heritability for these traits. The highest coefficient of genetic variation belonged to root diameter (1.66), indicating the existence of hifh diversity among genotypes. The lowest coefficient of genetic variation belonged to leaf length to width ratio (0.36), suggesting a low level of variation for this character. Based on PCA analysis, the first two components justified almost 90 percent of total variations. The three populations were nearly separated according to biplot analysis. Also, cluster analysis confirmed the biplot results and the populations were identified as three separated clusters which reflect the apparent difference among yarrow populations. The results of this study showed a wide genetic diversity for evaluated populations with regarding measured traits in Hormozgan province. Aforementioned findings indicated a dormant potentials of native yarrow populaton in south Iran and high value of these resources and obviously more attention need to be paid to identify, maintenance, assessing and apply them in breeding programs.