Table 4.

Genetic variance and heritability estimates of S₁ families derived from four cycles of selection in an early yellow population evaluated under optimal conditions at Ikenne during the 2011 and 2012 growing seasons and at Kadawa during the 2011 growing season in Nigeria.

Trait	Genetic variance				Heritability
	C0†	C1	C2	C3	C0	C1	C2	C3
Grain yield	90,581 ± 35,298*	99,918 ± 43,546*	57,035 ± 35,232	138,=502 ± 26,055**	0.49 ± 0.19*	0.45 ± 0.19*	0.33 ± 0.20	0.52 ± 0.17**
Days to anthesis	1.65 ± 0.47**	1.79 ± 0.53**	1.27 ± 0.39**	0.41 ± 0.09**	0.65 ± 0.19**	0.63 ± 0.19**	0.61 ± 0.19**	0.49 ± 0.08**
Days to silking	2.42 ± 0.67**	2.02 ± 0.63**	1.79 ± 0.56**	0.59 ± 0.13**	0.67 ± 0.19**	0.60 ± 0.19**	0.60 ± 0.19**	0.50 ± 0.09**
Anthesis-silking interval	0.25 ± 0.08**	0.19 ± 0.09*	0.07 ± 0.07	0.02 ± 0.02	0.57 ± 0.19**	0.44 ± 0.19*	0.21 ± 0.21	0.16 ± 0.19
Plant height	83 ± 23**	60 ± 20**	47 ± 19*	7 ± 7	0.68 ± 0.19**	0.58 ± 0.19**	0.48 ± 0.19*	0.16 ± 0.16
Ear height	30 ± 10**	20 ± 9*	18 ± 9*	5 ± 5	0.57 ± 0.19**	0.43 ± 0.20*	0.39 ± 0.20	0.18 ± 0.19
Husk cover	0.058 ± 0.020*	0.051 ± 0.019*	0.069 ± 0.027*	0.028 ± 0.009**	0.56 ± 0.19*	0.51 ± 0.19*	0.49 ± 0.19*	0.38 ± 0.10**
Plant aspect	0.0325 ± 0.0145*	0.0093 ± 0.0112	0.0280 ± 0.0176	0 ± 0.0104	0.44 ± 0.20*	0.17 ± 0.21	0.32 ± 0.20	0 ± 0.22
Ear aspect	0.018 ± 0.007*	0.030 ± 0.010**	0.018 ± 0.010	0.018 ± 0.007*	0.49 ± 0.19*	0.57 ± 0.19**	0.35 ± 0.20	0.33 ± 0.12**
Ears per plant	0.003 ± 0.002	0.007 ± 0.003*	0.003 ± 0.003	0.000 ± 0.001	0.34 ± 0.20	0.41 ± 0.20*	0.24 ± 0.21	0 ± 0.15

Significant at the 0.05 and 0.01 probability levels, respectively.

^†C₀, C₁, C₂, and C₃ refer to the base population, Cycle 1, Cycle 2, and Cycle 3, respectively.