Paper Details

Evaluation of drought stress effects on germination and seedling growth of Zea mays L.

Nazima Batool, Noshin Ilyas, Tahira Noor, Maimona Saeed, Roomina Mazhar, Fatima Bibi, Armghan Shahzad

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12692/ijb/5.4.203-209

Int. J. Biosci. 5(4), 203-209. August, 2014. (PDF)

Abstract:

Water deficit is an unavoidable and frequent feature of world agriculture and this condition globally and particularly in Pakistan had led scientist to study drought in economically important crops in Pakistan. The principal aim of current study was to compare the two varieties of maize in response to the water stress condition. This investigation was performed as factorial experiment under completely randomized design (CRD) with three replications. The seeds of the two maize varieties (Islamabad gold and sawan) were germinated in the petri dishs at 25 °C. After germination at specific interval (3, 5, 7 and 10 days) seedling were divided in two halves, first half was taken as control and second half subjected to drought in air tight desicators which contain 20 % MgSo4 solution. Results indicated that significant decrease was observed in germination index, seedling vigour index, fresh and dry weight of seedling. Seedling shoot length affected due to water shortage but root length show slight increase in response to stress conditions. The total protein contents It was concluded that both varieties were drought sensitive. Based on the results, the Islamabad gold was the most resistant in stress conditions.