Objective  To study the genetic rule of waxy maize yield and sugar degree, and analyze the correlation between yield, sugar degree and three ear leaves traits, so as to provide reference for breeding of fresh waxy maize with high sugar degree and explore the mechanism of the influence of three ear leaves traits on quality traits.

  Methods  In this study, 6 inbred lines were used as test species, and 15 waxy maize inbred lines were selected for incomplete diallel hybridization (NCII design). The yield of ear, soluble sugar content (sugar degree) of grain, leaf length, leaf width, leaf area, and other 10 ear and plant-related traits of the hybrid combinations were measured at the harvest period (21 days after pollination). Panicle weight and sugar content were the main yield and quality traits to evaluate the contribution of L. trefoil to yield and quality. The other characters were used as reference characters to evaluate the importance of three ear leave to yield and quality. According to the measured data, general combining ability (GCA) and special combining ability (SCA) of ear yield and sugar content were analyzed.

  Results  The results showed that there was a strong correlation between leaf length and ear yield in three ear leave characters. There was a strong correlation between leaf width and sugar content. There was a significant negative correlation between ear yield and sugar content, so materials with moderate leaf length and wide leaf width should be preferred in breeding process to improve the selection efficiency of high-quality waxy maize.

  Conclusion  The study indicated that the length and width of the leaves, especially the lower ear leaves and ear position leaves, could be used as the basis for selecting breeding materials of waxy maize.