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European Journal of Applied Sciences – Vol.10, No.6
Publication Date:December 25, 2022
DOI:10.14738/aivp.106.13340.
Yadav, P. K., Singh, A. K., Tripathi, M. K., Tiwari, S., Yadav, S. K., & Tripathi, N. (2022). Morpho-Physiological and Molecular
Characterization of Maize (Zea Mays L.) Genotypes for Drought Tolerance. European Journal of Applied Sciences, 10(6). 65-87.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
Morpho-Physiological and Molecular Characterization of Maize
(Zea Mays L.) Genotypes for Drought Tolerance
Pramod KumarYadav
Department of Genetics & Plant Breeding, College of Agriculture
Rajmata VijayarajeScindia Agricultural University
Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India
A. K. Singh
Department of Genetics & Plant Breeding, College of Agriculture
Rajmata VijayarajeScindia Agricultural University
Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India
M. K. Tripathi
Department of Genetics & Plant Breeding, College of Agriculture
Rajmata VijayarajeScindia Agricultural University
Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India
Department of Plant Molecular Biology& Biotechnology
College of Agriculture,Rajmata VijayarajeScindia
Agricultural University, Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India
Sushma Tiwari
Department of Plant Molecular Biology& Biotechnology
College of Agriculture,Rajmata VijayarajeScindia
Agricultural University, Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India
Sanjeev Kumar Yadav
Department of Genetics & Plant Breeding, College of Agriculture
Rajmata VijayarajeScindia Agricultural University
Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India
Niraj Tripathi
Directorate of Research Services
Jawaharlal Nehru Agricultural University, Jabalpur
Madhya Pradesh, India
ABSTRACT
Maize is abstemiously sensitive to drought. Drought distresses almost all
characteristics of maize growth in variable degrees at all phases of life cycle.
Drought pressure, predominantly at flowering period, has been recognized as the
most destructing aspect restraining maize production and productivity. So,
improving drought tolerance has become the top priority in maize improvement
programs. In the current study, 80 genotypes of maize including 66 hybrid, 12
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European Journal of Applied Sciences(EJAS) Vol.10, Issue 6, December-2022
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
parents and 2 check (drought tolerant HKI1105 and drought susceptible HKI1128
respectively) were included. These genotypes grown under irrigated and partial
irrigated conditions and laid out in a randomized block design with two
replications. Under irrigated condition, grain yield ranged between 36.29g to
129.6g with a mean value of 73.06g. Whereas under partial irrigated condition,
grain yield arrayed between 23.6g to 155.58g with an average worth of 66.11g.
Under partial irrigated conditions correlation studies of grain yield displayed
significant and positive correlation with relative water contents (RWC) and
membrane stability index (MSI) while negative correlation was detected with
turgid weight (TW) and saturation water deficit (SWD). Furthermore, molecular
characterization also performed employing 20 droughts linked polymorphic
microsatellite markers. A total of 110 alleles with a mean of 5.5 alleles per marker
were amplified. Cluster analysis revealed that genotypes HKI1105 fallen in a
group with 47 other genotypes, so possibility exist that all the genotypes may be
drought tolerant. Drought tolerant genotypes and polymorphic microsatellite
markers may be further validated and potentially employed in molecular marker- aided breeding to develop drought tolerant cultivar in maize.
Key words: Maize, drought tolerance, morpho-physiological traits, molecular markers.
INTRODUCTION
The primary cereal crop farmed worldwide today in numerous nations is maize (Grote et al.
2021). It is a multifaceted crop used to produce bioenergy, animal feed, fodder, and
nourishment for humans (Klopfenstein et al. 2013). In terms of area cultivated and produced,
maize comes in third place in the world, behind wheat and rice. The production of the maize
crop is being severely hampered by drought stress, just like it is with other crops (Tai et al.,
2011; Anjum et al., 2017; Chakraborty et al., 2020; Badr et al., 2020; Choudhary et al., 2021a;
Mishra et al., 2021a; Mishra et al., 2021b; Sharma et al., 2021; Yadav et al., 2022). Since maize
is a drought-sensitive crop, its ability to collect moisture is reduced at every stage of growth
and development (Sheoran et al. 2022). When dryness is pervasive at the seedling stage, the
crop stands poorly, and in the worst cases, seedling establishment can completely fail (Zeid
and Nermin, 2001; Ali et al. 2022). In the instance of maize reproductive growth phase,
drought stress is considerably more subtle, and in the event of extreme drought, barren ear
production may occur (Yang et al., 2004; Ji et al. 2012; Wang et al. 2019). The breeders were
motivated to create a drought-tolerant maize genotype by the state of maize globally and the
indirect impacts of drought on maize. To improve the development of drought-tolerant maize
genetic stock, drought responsive characteristics and adaptive processes must be understood
(Saad-Allah et al. 2022). The genotypes of maize have genetic variety that has been assessed
based on adaptive mechanisms such as drought avoidance, tolerance and escape.
Many researchers have looked for ways to increase tolerance to drought. Due to the difficulty
of improving drought tolerance (Shiri et al., 2010 a; Shiri et al., 2010b), insufficient genetic
variation (Mishra et al., 2021c; Mishra et al., 2021d), complex interactions between drought
and environmental factors (Choudhary et al., 2021b), and lack of effective selection
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Yadav, P. K., Singh, A. K., Tripathi, M. K., Tiwari, S., Yadav, S. K., & Tripathi, N. (2022). Morpho-Physiological and Molecular Characterization of
Maize (Zea Mays L.) Genotypes for Drought Tolerance. European Journal of Applied Sciences, 10(6). 65-87.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/aivp.106.13340
techniques, previous accomplishments were not as notable (Choudhary et al., 2021c). The
enhancement of drought tolerance and other abiotic conditions has currently been aided by
developments in germplasm augmentation, evaluation methodologies for genetic inheritance,
and with the application of DNA based markers.
Genetic studies in the past revealed that practically all variables connected to drought are
influenced by both additive and dominant gene effects in inheritance (Shiri et al., 2010 a;
Shiriet al., 2010b). For gene cloning and marker-assisted selection in crop improvement, it is
crucial to recognize the fully connected DNA markers with the targeted gene and map its
chromosome locus. The ability to discover and select Mendelian mechanisms that underlie
both simple and complex agronomic traits has been facilitated by recent advances in plant
molecular genetics (Dekkers and Hospital, 2002). Utilizing beneficial genes in crops more
quickly is made possible by the use of molecular markers in conjunction with plant breeding
techniques (Dar et al. 2018). Therefore, the selection of drought-tolerant cultivars in maize
may benefit from molecular markers-based screening in conjunction with field-based
experimental analyses. As a result, SSR or microsatellite markers were used for the study's
genotype screening of maize. Due to their advantages of being genetically codominant, robust,
repeatable, hypervariable, informative, and generally simple to use, SSR markers have been
used in the screening of different genotypes of different crops (Pramaniket al., 2019;
Upadhyay et al., 2020; Adlaket al., 2021; Makwana et al., 2021; Mishra et al., 2021e; Mishra et
al., 2021f; Verma et al., 2021; Yadav et al., 2021; Mandloiet al., 2022; Mishra et al., 2022a;
Mishra et al., 2022b; Rathore et al., 2022). Numerous SSR markers and Single Nucleotide
Polymorphisms (SNPs) together provide considerable benefits for DNA fingerprinting, genetic
diversity research, gene/QTL mapping, and marker-aided breeding in crops including maize
(Adhikari et al. 2021).
In terms of molecular diversity and marker trait association analysis, there are numerous
examples of microsatellite marker applications in maize (Xu et al. 2009; Adu et al. 2019;
Kumar et al. 2022a). Microsatellite markers have been found effective in producing a high
level of polymorphism in maize (Kaur et al. 2011; Bocianowski et al. 2021), and this property
of the markers makes them appropriate for analyzing genetic diversity (Sathua et al. 2018;
Kumar et al. 2022b). Matsuoka et al. (2002) employed SSR markers to explore evolution in
maize. However, SSR markers connected to drought resistance were found by Dubey et al.
(2009) in tropical maize lines. There are, however, roughly 20 QTLs connected to the ability to
withstand water stress, according to the Maize Genetics and Genomics Database (2010).
Identification and confirmation of the chromosomal loci for grain production and drought
tolerance in maize are required owing to the intricacy of the physiological mechanisms
affecting both yield and tolerance to drought (Xiao et al., 2005; Liu and Qin, 2021). In order to
find useful SSR markers for grain production of hybrid maize plants in both well-watered and