Evaluation of teosinte derived maize lines for drought tolerance

Abstract

Maize Plants grown in subtropical and temperate regions are often subjected to moisture stress. the wild progenitors of the crop species are the important source of genes of various abiotic and biotic stress tolerance. teosinte (Z. mays ssp. parviglumis), the progenitor of maize possesses several important genes of agronomic importance, majority of which were lost during the process of domestication. In the present investigation, 203 modern maize BC1F2 introgressed lines (encoded as am-1 to am-203) were developed and evaluated under irrigated and moisture stressed environments. In order to introduce the genes of agronomic importance from the progenitor teosinte to modern maize, DI-103 inbred were crossed with teosinte. the present study involved evaluation of 203 lines (encoded as am-1 to am-203). these lines were grown in a single row in two environmental conditions i.e. irrigated and stress condition during Rabi 2016–17 for the phenotyping of morpho-physiological traits viz., anthesis silking interval (ASI), leaf rolling, leaf firing, canopy temperature depression (CTD), chlorophyll content, ear length, ear diameter, kernel rows/ear, kernels/row, tip filling, grain filling, grain yield per plants (g), and 1000-kernel weight and drought tolerance index, stress tolerance index, yield index associated with drought tolerance. Overall sum of rank scores over thirteen traits associated with drought tolerance revealed that am-39 was the most drought tolerant line among all the 203 lines under study with a total score of one hundred eight, followed by am-64, am-16, am-42, and am-102, whereas, am-116 was the most susceptible, with the least score of thirty-four.