Indian Journal of Agricultural Research

  • Chief EditorT. Mohapatra

  • Print ISSN 0367-8245

  • Online ISSN 0976-058X

  • NAAS Rating 5.60

  • SJR 0.293

Frequency :
Bi-monthly (February, April, June, August, October and December)
Indexing Services :
BIOSIS Preview, ISI Citation Index, Biological Abstracts, Elsevier (Scopus and Embase), AGRICOLA, Google Scholar, CrossRef, CAB Abstracting Journals, Chemical Abstracts, Indian Science Abstracts, EBSCO Indexing Services, Index Copernicus
Indian Journal of Agricultural Research, volume 54 issue 4 (august 2020) : 465-470

Screening of Some Selected Indian Maize Cultivars to Simulated Drought Condition

Iwuala Emmanuel, Odjegba Victor, Umebese Caroline, Aqeel Hasan Rizvi, Tapan Kumar, Afroz Alam
1Department of Biotechnology and Bioscience, Banasthali Vidyapith, Rajasthan, India.
Cite article:- Emmanuel Iwuala, Victor Odjegba, Caroline Umebese, Rizvi Hasan Aqeel, Kumar Tapan, Alam Afroz (2020). Screening of Some Selected Indian Maize Cultivars to Simulated Drought Condition. Indian Journal of Agricultural Research. 54(4): 465-470. doi: 10.18805/IJARe.A-5247.
Drought is a major constraint to get an optimum yield of any crop under changing environment. A total of 12 Indian accessions of maize seedlings was screened initially by performing relative water content (RWC) under water deficit condition. Three (RJ-2020, BPCH-6, and EC-3161) landraces that showed a higher RWC than DTSYN11 were finally selected for further studies. Four landraces maintained RWC above 80% under 4th and 8th day stress periods. Higher contents of chlorophyll were recorded significantly in EC-3161 and in RJ-2020 as compared to DTSYN11 under the 8th day of stress. RWC showed a decline in BPCH-6 (72.54%) and in RJ-2020 (72.65%) and proline was significantly increased up to 10 and 13-fold, respectively. Therefore, this research has identified three unfamiliar maize landraces that possess the capacity to be drought tolerance when under water deficit and watering condition. In addition to their useful applications in breeding program, they are valuable resources to elucidate genetic profiling that enhance the capacity to exhibit drought tolerance in Indian maize cultivars. 
  1. Arnon, D.I. (1949). Copper enzymes in isolated chloroplast, polyphenol -oxidase in Beta vulgaris. Plant Physiol. 24: 1-15.
  2. Bates, L.S., Waldren, R.P. and Teare, I.D. (1973). Rapid determination of free proline for water stress studies. Plant and Soil. 39: 205–207.
  3. Blum, A. (2011). Plant Breeding for Water-limited Environments. Springer, NY, USA.
  4. Bray, E.A., Bailey-Serres, J. and Weretilnyk, E. (2000). Responses to abiotic stresses. In: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of Plants. [Buchanan, B.B., Gruissem, W., Jones, R. (Eds.)], American Society of Plant Physiologists, Rockville, MD, USA.; pp 1158–1203.
  5. Britton, G. (1995). Structure and properties of carotenoids in relation to function. FASEB J. 9:1551–1558.
  6. Chaves, M.M., Maroco, J.P. and Pereira, J.S. (2003). Under­standing plant responses to drought from genes to the whole plant. Funct Plant Biol. 30: 239-264.
  7. CIMMYT. (2013). The drought tolerant maize for Africa project. DTMA Brief. Retrieved from http://dtma. cimmyt.org/index.php/about/background.
  8. Coruzzi, G. and Last, R. (2000). Amino acids. In: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of Plants. [Buchanan, B.B., Gruissem, W., Jones, R. (Eds.)], American Society of Plant Physiologists, Rockville, MD, USA. Pp 358–410.
  9. Daryanto, S., Wang, L. and Jacinthe, P.A. (2016). Global synthesis of drought effects on maize and wheat production. PLoS ONE. 11(5): e0156362. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0156362.
  10. Hare, P.D., Cress, W.A. and VanStaden, J. (1998). Dissecting the roles of osmolyte accumulation in plants. Plant, Cell and Environ. 21: 535–553.
  11. Iwuala, E., Odjegba, V., Sharma, V. and Alam, A. (2019). Drought stress modulates expression of aquaporin gene and photosynthetic efficiency in Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br. genotypes. Curr Plant Biol. DOI: 10.1016/j.cpb.2019.100131.
  12. Iwuala, E., Odjegba, V., Umebese, C., Vinay, S. and Alam, A. (2019). Physiological and gene expression studies of selected Zea mays L. and Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br. genotypes to simulated drought stress condition. Vegetos. 32 (3): 397-406. DOI: 10.1007/s42535-019-00030-7.
  13. Lichtentaler, H.K. and Buschman, C. (2001). Chlorophylls and carotenoids: measurement and characterization by UV-VIS spectroscopy. Curr Prot in Food and Analy Chem. F4. 3.1–F4.3.8.
  14. Lobell, D. B., Bänziger, M., Magorokosho, C. and Vivek, B. (2011). Nonlinear heat effects on African maize as evidenced by historical yield trials. Nat Climate Change (NCC). 1: 42–45.
  15. Maiti, R., Satya, P. and Rajkumar, D. (2012). Crop Plant Anatomy. CAB International, Oxford Shire, UK. 
  16. Malkin, R. and Niyogi, K. (2000). Photosynthesis. In: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of Plants. [Buchanan, B.B., Gruissem, W., Jones, R. (Eds.)], American Society of Plant Physiologists, Rockville, MD, USA; pp. 568–628.
  17. McKersie, B.D. and Leshem, Y.Y. (1994). Stress and Stress Coping in Cultivated Plants. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Netherlands.
  18. Parry, A.J., Flexas, J. and Medrano, H. (2005). Prospects for crop production under drought: research priorities and future directions. Ann of Appl Biol. 147:211–226.
  19. Ribaut, J.M. and Ragot, M. (2007). Marker-assisted selection to improve drought adaptation in maize: the backcross approach, perspectives, limitations and alternatives. J of Expt Bot. 58: 351–360.
  20. Ristic, Z., Williams, G. and Yang, G. (1996). Dehydration, damage to cellular membranes and heat shock proteins in maize hybrids from different climates. J of Plant Physiol. 149: 424-432.
  21. Santabarbara, S., Casazza, A.P. and Ali, K. (2013). The requirement for carotenoids in the assembly and function of the photosynthetic complexes in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Plant Physiol. 161: 535–546.
  22. Takele, A. (2010). Differential responses of electrolyte leakage and pigment compositions in maize and sorghum after exposure to and recovery from pre- and lost-flowering dehydration. Agric Sci in China. 9: 813–824.
  23. Triparthy, J.N., Zhang, J. and Robin, S. (2000). QTLs for cell- membrane stability mapped in rice (Oryza sativa L.) under drought stress. Theo and Appl Genet. 100: 1197–1202.
  24. Tuinstra, J.P. and Pereira, J.S. (2003). Understanding plant responses to drought-from genes to the whole plant. Funct Plant Biol. 30: 239–264.
  25. Turner, N.C. (1981). Techniques and experimental approaches for the measurement of plant water status. Plant and Soil. 58: 339–366.
  26. Vinocur, B. and Altman, A. (2005). Recent advances in engineering plant tolerance to abiotic stress: achievements and limitations. Curr Opin in Biotech. 16:123–132.
  27. Xu, Z., Zhou, G. and Shimizu, H. (2010). Plant responses to drought and rewatering. Plant Signal and Behav. 5: 649–654.

Editorial Board

View all (0)