Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Stress Reactions of Maize Genotypes to Drought Stress at Different Phenophases and Recovery

  • RESEARCH PAPERS
  • Published:
Russian Journal of Plant Physiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Maize (Zea mays L.) cultivated worldwide, is often exposed to various biotic and abiotic stresses affecting productivity. We evaluated three maize genotypes, SNJ201126, Z10115 and HKI161 for morpho-physiological, biochemical and anti-oxidative enzyme related traits under well watered control and drought stress conditions. Plants were subjected to different intensity of drought stress inside rainout shelter. The genotypes SNJ201126 and Z10115 maintained higher relative water content, chlorophyll, proline and canopy temperature depression and higher activities of antioxidative enzymes such as superoxide dismutase, catalase, guiacol peroxidase, and glutathione reductase as compared to HKI161 under stress conditions. All genotypes showed a decreasing trend for these traits with the increasing severity of stresses. Stress recovery was better in SNJ201126 and Z10115 when compared to HKI161. The variation in physiological and enzymatic activities between genotypes was also reflected in their differences in yield and its attributes. The higher drought tolerance and recovery capability of SNJ201126 and Z10115 were associated with more effective maintenance of leaf water status and efficient antioxidative systems to protect themselves from oxidative damage which is critical to withstand and survive the rapidly changing climate.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 3.

Similar content being viewed by others

REFERENCES

  1. Mir, R.R., Zaman-Allah, M., Sreenivasulu, N., Trethowan, R., and Varshney, R.K., Integrated genomics, physiology and breeding approaches for improving drought tolerance in crops, Theor. Appl. Genet., 2012, vol. 125, p. 625. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-012-1904-9

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. Lobell., D.B., Roberts, M.J., Schlenker, W., Braun, N., Little, B.B., Rejesus, R.M., and Hammer, G.L., Greater sensitivity to drought accompanies maize yield increase in the US Midwest, Science, 2014, vol. 344, p. 516. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1251423

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Feller, U. and Vaseva, I., Extreme climatic events: impacts of drought and high temperature on physiological processes in agronomically important plants, Front. Environ. Sci., 2014, vol. 2, p. 1. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2014.00039

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Almeida, G.D., Nair, S., Borém, A., Cairns, J., Trachsel, S., Ribaut, J.-M., Banziger, M., Prasanna, B.M., Crossa, J., and Babu, R., Molecular mapping across three populations reveals a QTL hotspot region on chromosome 3 for secondary traits associated with drought tolerance in tropical maize, Mol. Breed., 2014, vol. 34, p. 701.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Abendroth L.J., Elmore, R.W., Boyer, M.J., and Marlay, S.K., Corn Growth and Development, Ames, IA: Iowa State Univ., 2011.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Cakir R., Effect of water stress at different development stages on vegetative and reproductive growth of corn, Field Crop Res., 2004, vol. 89, p. 1.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Bhargava, S. and Sawant, K., Drought stress adaptation: metabolic adjustment and regulation of gene expression, Plant Breed., 2013, vol. 132, p. 21.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Levitt, J., Responses of plants to environmental stresses, in Water, Radiation, Salt and Other Stresses, 2nd ed. New York: Academic, 1980, vol. 2, p. 25.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Yordanov, I., Velikova, V., and Tsonev, T., Plant responses to drought and stress tolerance, Bulgarian J. Plant Physiol., 2003, special issue, p. 187.

  10. Yang, X., Chen, X., Ge, Q., Li, B., Tong, Y., Zhang, A., Li, Z., Kuang, T., and Lu, C., Tolerance of photosynthesis to photoinhibition, high temperature and drought stress in flag leaves of wheat: a comparison between a hybridization line and its parents grown under field conditions, Plant Sci., 2006, vol. 171, p. 389.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Laxa, M., Liebthal, M., Telman, W., Chibani, K., and Dietz, K.J., The role of the plant antioxidant system in drought tolerance, Antioxidants, 2019, vol. 8, p. 94.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Stoilova, S.L., Demirevska, K., Petrova, T., Tsenov, N., and Feller, U., Antioxidative protection in wheat varieties under severe recoverable drought at seedling stage, Plant Soil Environ., 2008, vol. 54, p 529.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Blum, A., Osmotic adjustment is a prime drought stress adaptive engine in support of plant production, Plant, Cell Environ., 2017, vol. 40, p. 4.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Nikolaeva, M.K., Maevskaya, S.N., and Voronin, P.Yu., Activities of antioxidant and osmoprotective systems and photosynthetic gas exchange in maize seedlings under drought conditions, Russ. J. Plant Physiol., 2015, vol. 62, p. 314.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Kuznetsov, Vl.V. and Shevyakova, N.I., Proline under stress: biological role, metabolism, and regulation, Russ. J. Plant Physiol., 1999, vol. 46, p. 274.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Ghahfarokhi, M.G., Mansouri-Far, C., Saeidi, M., and Abdoli, M., Different physiological and biochemical responses in maize hybrids subjected to drought stress at vegetative and reproductive stages, Acta Biol. Szeged., 2016, vol. 60, p. 27.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Maheswari, M., Vijayalakshmi, T., Varalaxmi, Y., Sarkar, B., Yadav, S.K., Singh, J., Seshu Babu, G., Kumar, A., Sushma, A., Jyothilakshmi, N., and Vanaja, M., Functional mechanisms of drought tolerance in maize through phenotyping and genotyping under well watered and water stressed conditions, Eur. J. Agron., 2016, vol. 79, p. 43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eja.2016.05.008

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Barrs, H.D. and Weatherly, P.E., A re-examination of the relative turgidity technique for estimating water-deficits in leaves, Aust. J. Biol. Sci., 1962, vol. 15, p. 413.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Heath, R.L. and Packer, L., Photoperoxidation in isolated chloroplasts: I. Kinetics and stoichiometry of fatty acid peroxidation, Arch. Biochem. Biophys., 1968, vol. 125, p. 189.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Bates, L.S., Waldren, R.P., and Teare, I.D., Rapid determination of free proline for water stress studies, Plant Soil, 1973, vol. 39, p. 205. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dental.2010.07.006

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Dhindsa, R., Plumb-Dhindsa, P., and Thorpe, T., Leaf senescence: correlated with increased levels of membrane permeability and lipid peroxidation and decreased levels of superoxide dismutase and catalase, J. Exp. Bot., 1981, vol. 32, p. 93.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Claiborne, A., Catalase activity, in Handbook Methods For Oxygen Radical Research, Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 1985, p. 283.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Chance, B. and Maehly, A.C., Assay of catalase and peroxidases, Methods Enzymol., 1955, vol. 2, p 764.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Smith, I.K., Vierheller, T.L., and Thorne, C.A., Assay of glutathione reductase in crude tissue homogenates using 5.5-dithiobis (2-nitrobenzoic acid), Anal. Biochem., 1988, vol. 175, p. 408.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Singh, R., Pandey, N., Naskar, J., and Shirke, P.A., Physiological performance and differential expression profiling of genes associated with drought tolerance in contrasting varieties of two Gossypium species, Protoplasma, 2014, vol. 252, p. 423. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00709-014-0686-0

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Weber, V., Araus, J.L., Cairns, J.E., Sanchez, C., Melchinger, A.E., and Orsini, E., Prediction of grain yield using reflectance spectra of canopy and leaves in maize plants grown under different water regimes, Field Crop Res., 2012, vol. 128, p. 82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Syamsia, I.A., Noerfitryani, N.M., and Reta, K.M., Paddy chlorophyll concentrations in drought stress condition and endophytic fungi application, IOP Conf. Ser.: Earth Environ. Sci., 2018, vol. 156, art. ID 012040. https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/156/1/012040

  28. Spitkó, T., Nagy, Z., Zsubori, Z.T., Szőke, C., Berzy, T., Pintér, J., and Marton, C.L., Connection between normalized difference vegetation index and yield in maize, Plant Soil Environ., 2016, vol. 62, p. 293.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Aparicio, N., Villegas, D., Casadesús, J., Araus, J.L., and Royo, C., Spectral vegetation indices as non-destructive tools for determining durum wheat yield, Agron. J., 2000, vol. 92, p. 83.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Amani, I., Fischer, R.A., and Reynolds, M.P., Canopy temperature depression association with yield of irrigated spring wheat cultivars in hot climate, J. Agron. Crop Sci., 1996, vol. 176, p. 119.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Sofi, P.A., Ara, A., Gull, M., and Rehman, K., Canopy temperature depression as an effective physiological trait for drought screening, in Drought-Detection and Solutions, London: InTechOpen, 2019. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85966

  32. Aboughadareh, A.P., Mohammadi, R., Etminan, A., Shooshtari, L., Tabrizi, N.M., and Poczai, P., Effects of drought stress on some agronomic and morpho-physiological traits in durum wheat genotypes, Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, p. 5610. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12145610

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  33. Chugh, V., Kaur, N., Grewal, M.S., and Gupta, A.K., Differential antioxidative response of tolerant and sensitive maize (Zea mays L.) genotypes to drought stress at reproductive stage, Ind. J. Biochem. Biophys., 2013, vol. 50, p. 150.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  34. Siripornadulsil, S., Traina, S., Verma, D.P., and Sayre, R.T., Molecular mechanisms of proline-mediated tolerance to toxic heavy metals in transgenic microalgae, Plant Cell, 2002, vol. 14, p. 2837.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  35. Kamarudin, Z.S., Yusop, M.R., Mohamed, M.T.M., Ismail, M.R., and Harun, A.R., Growth performance and antioxidant enzyme activities of advanced mutant rice genotypes under drought stress condition, Agronomy, 2018, vol. 8, p. 279.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  36. Sinay, H., Arumingtyas, E.L, Harijati, N., and Indriyani, S., Proline content and yield components of local corn cultivars from Kisar Island, Maluku, Indonesia, Int. J. Plant Biol., 2015, vol. 6, p. 6071.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Gill, S.S. and Tuteja, N., Reactive oxygen species and antioxidant machinery in abiotic stress tolerance in crop plants, Plant Physiol. Biochem., 2010, vol. 48, p. 909. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plaphy.2010.08.016

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  38. Baxter, A., Mittler, R., and Suzuki, N., ROS as key players in plants tress signaling, J. Exp. Bot., 2014, vol. 65, p. 1229. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/ert375

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  39. Takele, A. and Farrant, J., Enzymatic antioxidant defence mechanisms of maize and sorghum after exposure to and recovery from pre- and post-flowering dehydration, Acta Agron. Hung., 2009, vol. 57, p. 445. https://doi.org/10.1556/AAgr.57.2009.4.7

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  40. Shamsun, N., Lakshminarayana, R.V., Sahoo, L., and Tanti, B., Antioxidant protection mechanisms reveal significant response in drought-induced oxidative stress in some traditional rice of Assam, India, Rice Sci., 2018, vol. 25, p. 185. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rsci.2018.06.002

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The research was carried out under National Innovations on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) Project at the Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture (CRIDA). The authors are thankful to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) for providing financial support for the NICRA project for carrying out the present investigation.

Funding

This study was funded by The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) under the national flagship project entitled National Innovations on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) for carrying out the present investigation.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ICAR-Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Santoshnagar, Hyderabad, Telangana, India

    B. Sarkar, S. K. Savita, Y. Varalaxmi, M. Vanaja, N. Ravi Kumar, P. Sathish, N. Jyothi Lakshmi, M. Prabhakar, A. K. Shanker, S. K. Yadav & M. Maheswari

Authors
  1. B. Sarkar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. S. K. Savita
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Y. Varalaxmi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. M. Vanaja
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. N. Ravi Kumar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. P. Sathish
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. N. Jyothi Lakshmi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. M. Prabhakar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. A. K. Shanker
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. S. K. Yadav
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. M. Maheswari
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to B. Sarkar.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interests. The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Statement on the welfare of humans or animals. This article does not contain any studies involving humans or animals performed by any of the authors.

Additional information

Abbreviations: CAT—catalase; GPx—guaiacol peroxidase; GR— glutathione reductase; gs—stomatal conductance; NDVI—normalized difference vegetation index; SOD—superoxide dismutase.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Sarkar, B., Savita, S.K., Varalaxmi, Y. et al. Stress Reactions of Maize Genotypes to Drought Stress at Different Phenophases and Recovery. Russ J Plant Physiol 69, 54 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1021443722030128

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1021443722030128

Keywords:

Search

Navigation