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ASSESSMENT OF WATER STRESS TOLERANCE IN DIFFERENT MAIZE ACCESSIONS AT GERMINATION AND EARLY GROWTH STAGE
Abstract
A pot experiment was conducted to screen 60 maize accessions for water stress tolerance. In preliminary experiment, 60 maize accessions were grown at four moisture levels (100%, 80%, 60% and 40% of field capacity) and evaluated on the basis of survival rate. About 10 maize accessions namely NC-9, M-14, B-42, NC-3, N18, W187R, NC-42, NC-8 and A50-2 with highest survival rate at low moisture level (40% of FC) were selected as water stress tolerant and other 10 maize accessions namely T-7, WFTMS, B-34, NC-7, N48-1, OH54-3A, T-5, UMZ, NC-4 and USSR with lowest survival rate at mild stress (moisture level 80% of FC) were selected as susceptible to water stress. In the 2nd experiment, these selected maize accessions were further evaluated on the basis of survival rate, relative cell membrane injury (RCI %age), and stomatal conductance. Broad sense heritability for these traits was also estimated and it was found that RCI% could be used as main selection criterion for drought tolerance in maize. Furthermore, on the basis of this selection criterion, NC-9 was found as highly water stress tolerant, while T-7 recognized as drought susceptible.
