Table 2.

Components of variance and heritability for MLN severity scores, grain yield and other agronomic traits of a maize combining ability studies evaluated for 2 years under artificial inoculation

Variance components	MLN-early	MLN-late	GY	EPP	MOI	ER
${\mathit{\sigma }}_{\text{G}}^2$	0.07***	0.10***	0.95***	0.04***	1.56***	8.75*
${\mathit{\sigma }}_{\text{G}\times \text{E}}^2$	0.03***	0.04***	0.36***	0.01**	2.57***	18.97**
${\mathit{\sigma }}_{\text{GCA - Female}}^2$	0.03**	0.04**	0.32*	0.02**	0.40*	4.85ns
${\mathit{\sigma }}_{\text{GCA - Male}}^2$	0.04**	0.06**	0.33**	0.02**	0.48**	4.04ns
${\mathit{\sigma }}_{\text{SCA}}^2$	0.01*	0.02**	0.34***	0.01*	0.61*	1.39ns
${\mathit{\sigma }}_{\text{GCA - Female}\ast \text{Year}}^2$	0.01**	0.02*	0.12*	0.00ns	0.22ns	5.49ns
${\mathit{\sigma }}_{\text{GCA - Male}\ast \text{Year}}^2$	0.00ns	0.01ns	0.07ns	0.00ns	0.00	8.15*
${\mathit{\sigma }}_{\text{SCA}\ast \text{Year}}^2$	0.01*	0.02*	0.21**	0.01ns	2.35**	8.16ns
${\mathit{\sigma }}_{\text{e}}^2$	0.09***	0.10***	1.01***	0.09***	3.19***	103.45***
GCA:SCA ratio	3.5	2.5	1.0	2.2	0.7	3.2
Heritability (h2)	0.69	0.73	0.68	0.62	0.42	0.22

MLN-early MLN score at 21 days post inoculation, MLN-late MLN score at 42 days post inoculation, GY grain yield, MOI percent of moisture at harvest, EPP ear per plant, ER ears rot

Variance components with their significance levels were given for general combining ability (GCA), specific combining ability (SCA), and interactions with years. The GCA variances were averaged over female and male for calculation of the GCA: SCA variance ratio

*, **, *** F test for variance components significant at the 0.05, 0.01 and 0.001 probability levels, respectively

ns non-significant at 0.05 probability level