Combining ability of experimental maize lines for yield and aflatoxin in the southeastern USA

Aflatoxin contamination of maize (Zea mays L.) grain presents risks to animal and human health and causes economic losses for growers, particularly in the southeastern United States. Development of hybrids with genetic resistance to aflatoxin contamination by Aspergillus flavus will reduce these risks. Two factorial crossing experiments were conducted to evaluate yield, agronomic traits, and aflatoxin in maize hybrids. In Exp. 1, 18 aflatoxin-resistant (GT) lines were each crossed to six testers. In Exp. 2, 13 of the same lines were each crossed to 10 different testers. Each experiment was conducted for two years at Tifton, GA and commercial check hybrids were included for comparison.  Ears were inoculated with A. flavus isolate NRRL 3357 using the side-needle technique 14 d after silking. Aflatoxin was quantified after harvest. Broad sense heritability for aflatoxin was low in Exp. 1 (H2 = 0.09) but was higher in Exp. 2 (H2 = 0.27). Heritability was moderate to high for plant height (H..., , , # Data from Combining Ability of Experimental Maize Lines for Yield and Aflatoxin in the Southeastern USA

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This dataset contains all raw data from all four years of the study in Excel (.xlsx) format.
Missing data are represented by a dash (-). Male and female parents of commercial hybrids are unknown and are thus coded as missing data.

## Description of the data and file structure

Data from each individual experiment are presented in individual tabs. In 2014 and 2015, two separate experiments for yield (tabs 2014yld and 2015yld, respectively) and aflatoxin (tabs 2014afla and 2015afla, respectively) were conducted. Other agronomic traits, such as plant height, ear height, etc. were assessed in the 2014 and 2015 yield trials and are available in the 2014yld and 2015yld tabs. In 2018 and 2019, yield and aflatoxin were assessed within the same experiment along with other agronomic traits. These data are available in tabs 2018all and 2019all.

Data are reported under the followin...