Abstract
Drought is a severe threat to maize yield stability in Serbia and other temperate Southeast European countries occurring occasionally but with significant yield losses. The development of resilient genotypes that perform well under drought is one of the main focuses of maize breeding programmes. To test the tolerance of newly developed elite maize inbred lines to drought stress, field trials for grain yield performance and anthesis silk interval (ASI) were set in drought stressed environments in 2011 and 2012. Inbred lines performing well under drought, clustered into a group with short ASI and a smaller group with long ASI, were considered as a potential source for tolerance. The former contained inbreds from different heterotic groups and with a proportion of local germplasm. The latter consisted of genotypes with mixed exotic and Lancaster germplasm, which performed better in more drought-affected environments. Three inbreds were selected for their potential drought tolerance, showing an above-average yield and small ASI in all environments. Association analysis indicated significant correlations between ASI and grain yield and three microsatellites (bnlg1525, bnlg238 and umc1025). Eight alleles were selected for their favourable concurrent effect on yield increase and ASI decrease. The proportion of phenotypic variation explained by the markers varied across environments from 5.7% to 22.4% and from 4.6% to 8.1% for ASI and yield, respectively. The alleles with strongest effect on performance of particular genotypes and their interactions in specific environments were identified by the mean of partial least square interactions analysis indicating potential suitability of the makers for tolerant genotype selection.
Highlights
Drought is a complex abiotic stress that causes significant yield losses in rainfed grown field crops worldwide (Mir et al, 2012)
Ninety six diverse maize inbred lines from the Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops, Novi Sad, Serbia, containing elite material from Iowa Stiff Stalk Synthetic (BSSS), Lancaster and Iodent heterotic groups, inbreds developed from local Serbian maize varieties of mixed origin and from exotic germplasm were selected for the analysis
The prominent water deficit and high daily temperatures were observed during June, July and August in 2011 and 2012 in Serbia, but in many parts of Southeast Europe (Fig. S1 [suppl.])
Summary
Drought is a complex abiotic stress that causes significant yield losses in rainfed grown field crops worldwide (Mir et al, 2012). In Serbia and other temperate Southeast European countries, drought is a severe threat to maize (Zea mays L.) yield stability occurring occasionally but with significant yield reduction of more than 60% during a dry year (Stricevic et al, 2011). Due to limited irrigation capacities, maize production in Serbia, to many developing countries, is traditionally and mostly rainfed. The need for prompt and efficient solutions propelled maize breeding programmes to prioritise development of drought tolerant genotypes. It is often difficult to make accurate predictions of drought events and anticipate crop responses once they occur, which further impede breeding efforts
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