The objectives of this work were to determine the general and specific combining ability between landraces and synthetic varieties of maize and to identify the crosses that combine important agronomic traits, to develop new maize varieties. A partial diallel was done with 11 synthetic varieties crossed with five landraces. The crosses were evaluated along with the five parental landraces and five commercial hybrids, in randomized complete block design, with four replicates, in São João do Triunfo and Londrina, PR, Brazil. There was genotype x location interaction for most characters, predominantly from the general combining ability x location interaction. The best estimates of general combining ability of the synthetic group were observed for ST09 and ST04 and, in the variety group, for MC45 and IAPAR 50, taking into consideration the set of traits and locals. The bests crosses (MC34 x ST04, IAPAR 50 x ST07, MC47 x ST09, MC45 x ST02, MC51 x ST04, and MC45 x ST01) had positive estimates of specific combining ability for grain yield in both locals. There are crosses with potential to develop new maize varieties with better grain yield, plant height, ear position, percentage of damaged ears and of lodging and broken stalks than individual maize landraces, and more similar to the performance of commercial corn hybrids.
Zea mays; combining ability; crosses; varieties development
