VOLUME 54 ISSUE 4 (2020) 465 RESEARCH ARTICLE Indian Journal of Agricultural Research, Volume 54 Issue 4: 465-470 (August 2020) Screening of Some Selected Indian Maize Cultivars to Simulated Drought Condition Iwuala Emmanuel 1,4 , Odjegba Victor 2 , Umebese Caroline 2 , Aqeel Hasan Rizvi 3 , Tapan Kumar 3 , Afroz Alam 4 10.18805/IJARe.A-5247 ABSTRACT Drought is a major constraint to get an optimum yield of any crop under changing environment. A total of 12 Indian accessions of maize seedlings was screened initially by performing relative water content (RWC) under water deficit condition. Three (RJ-2020, BPCH-6 and EC-3161) landraces that showed a higher RWC than DTSYN11 were finally selected for further studies. Four landraces maintained RWC above 80% under 4 th and 8 th day stress periods. Higher contents of chlorophyll were recorded significantly in EC- 3161 and in RJ-2020 as compared to DTSYN11 under the 8 th day of stress. RWC showed a decline in BPCH-6 (72.54%) and in RJ- 2020 (72.65%) and proline was significantly increased up to 10 and 13-fold, respectively. Therefore, this research has identified three unfamiliar maize landraces that possess the capacity to be drought tolerance when under water deficit and watering condition. In addition to their useful applications in breeding program, they are valuable resources to elucidate genetic profiling that enhance the capacity to exhibit drought tolerance in Indian maize cultivars. Key words: Chlorophylls, Drought, Genotypes, Proline, Zea mays. INTRODUCTION Drought is known to cause the utmost negative effect on agricultural practices globally (Vinocur and Altman, 2005) affecting about one-fourth of Mediterranean areas meant for maize cultivation (Rabaut and Ragot, 2007). About 70% maize cultivars are grown in conditions of rain-fed, with possibilities that alleviate limited water deficit conditions (Rabaut and Ragot, 2007). Thereby, a need exists to develop varieties tolerant to drought either through genetic engineering to meet the demands of maize grain production to feed both animals and humans (Parry et al., 2005). Daryanto et al. (2016) estimated that most often at the developmental and vegetative phases of maize production, maize yields were reduced by 39.3% when exposed to mid- season droughts. It is observed that the alarming increase in temperatures and climate change have a huge implication in maize production, thereby reducing food supply and create poor livelihoods for smallholder farmers (Lobell et al., 2011). The adaptation to recent climatic changes is essential for adequate supply of food and security. Currently, one of the recent adaptation strategies is the production of maize drought-tolerant (DT) varieties. During field and controlled experiment, the use of DT maize varieties has been confirmed not only to possess drought tolerance capacity, but likewise produce high yield more than other commercial hybrids (CIMMYT, 2013). Plants adequately acquired certain myriad of metabolic or developmental signals to enhance uptake of water and effectively balance the utilization of water during their vegetative and reproductive stages causing tolerance to drought. Plants are known to exhibit several biochemical and physiological responses to alleviate drought effects (Tuinstra and Pereira, 2003; Bray et al., 2000). The response of plants under moisture deficit condition could be seen in a reduced relative content of water. Relative 1 Department of Plant Science and Biotechnology, Federal University Oye Ekiti, Nigeria 2 Department of Botany, University of Lagos, Akoka, Lagos State, Nigeria 3 International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, New Delhi, India 4 Department of Biotechnology and Bioscience, Banasthali Vidyapith, Rajasthan, India Corresponding Author: Afroz Alam, Department of Biotechnology and Bioscience, Banasthali Vidyapith, Rajasthan, India. Email: afrozalamsafvi@gmail.com How to cite this article: Emmanuel, I., Victor, O., Caroline, U., Rizvi, A.H., Kumar, T. and Alam, A. (2020). Screening of Some Selected Indian Maize Cultivars to Simulated Drought Condition. Indian Journal of Agricultural Research. 54(4): 465-470. Submitted: 18-03-2019 Accepted: 16-03-2020 Published: 15-07-2020 content of water is the status of the amount of water in plant under stress and how interruptions occur, causing injury leading to death (McKersie and Leshem, 1994). Several mechanisms could activates under environmental stresses in plants which include increased amounts of photosynthetic pigments and osmolytes (Britton, 1995; Malkin and Niyogi, 2000). The objective of the present study is to screen and identify Indian maize landraces and to determine their physiological parameters when under water deficit and mild re-watering condition. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of (12) selected maize (Zea mays L.) seeds were collected from ICAR-IARI (Indian Council of Agricultural Research-Indian Agricultural Research Institute), New Delhi,