Abstract:
Drought stress is limiting
global crop production more seriously than
ever because of rapid change in global
climate. Present investigations were made
with a view to understand the traits which
can be used as selection criteria for drought
tolerance in maize at seedling stage. For this
purpose twenty-five maize inbred lines were
evaluated under water deficit conditions for
traits like fresh shoot weight, fresh shoot
length, fresh root length, fresh root weight,
leaf venation, stomatal frequency and
epidermal cell size. Significant differences
were found among the genotypes for various
physio-genetic traits. The genotypes 20P2-1,
L5-1, 150P2-1, 70NO2-2, 150P1 and L7-2
were found good performer and may be
exploited for developing drought tolerant
synthetics and hybrids. Fresh shoot length
and fresh root weight found overall direct
and indirect contributor in fresh shoot
weight and they were positive and
significantly correlated with fresh shoot
weight. Stomatal frequency and epidermal
cell size had significantly decreasing direct
and indirect effects on fresh shoot weight
and significant genetic correlation with it.
These results suggested that fresh shoot
length and fresh root weight (Increased)
stomatal frequency and epidermal cell size
(decreased) might be used as selection
criterion while selection for high fresh shoot
yield under drought conditions.
