Maize cob color has undergone powerful artificial selection in temperate germplasm and commercial hybrids.To clar-ify the selection bias of cob color in maize in different regions,and to explore the association of cob color with various agronomic traits,we used the public data of nationally approved maize hybrids from 1992 to 2020 to analyze the released regions and multi-ple agronomic traits of hybrids with different cob colors(red or white).Among the 1604 hybrids counted,the proportion of red cob hybrids has gradually increased from 50%in 1992 to more than 80%in 2020.The proportion of red cobs in the Northern spring maize region,Huanghuaihai summer maize region,and Northwestern maize region increased faster than that in the South-western and Southern maize regions.The average ear length and kernel row number of the red cob hybrids and white axis varie-ties were significantly higher than those of the whites in the recent 15-20 years.The average crude starch content of the reds in-creased significantly over the years,while the average crude fat content decreased significantly.The average crude protein and lysine content of the reds were weaker than that of the white axis varieties.Therefore,we speculate that the strong artificial selec-tion for red cob may be mainly related to the pursuit of maize yield potential per plant.However,the performance of red cob hy-brids in abiotic stress and grain protein quality deserves further exploration.
万方数据