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Research Article | Open Access | Peer Review

Identification of Drought-Tolerant Maize Inbred Lines Through Morphophysiological Traits

Senthil Natesan , Mohammad Reda Ismail , Aswin Reddy Chilakala , Shivakumar Ravichandran , Mohanapriya Balamurugan , Indhu S M , Napolean T , Jyoti Kaul
Volume : 111
Issue: June(4-6)
Pages: 130 - 141
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Abstract


Drought stress is a critical constraint to maize productivity, particularly in tropical regions where irrigation resources are limited. To identify drought-tolerant maize genotypes and establish physiological benchmarks for future breeding, a total of 90 diverse inbred lines were screened under managed drought conditions during the Rabi-Summer 2019 season at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore. Drought stress was imposed from the pre-flowering to flowering stages. Significant genotypic variation was observed for key morpho-physiological traits, including anthesis-silking interval (ASI), chlorophyll content, relative water content (RWC), photosynthetic rate, and transpiration rate. Genotypes such as CBM-DL-448, CBM-DL-435, and CBM-DL-238 displayed high grain yield, efficient photosynthesis, and better canopy temperature regulation under stress. Further evaluation of 14 top-performing lines under well-watered conditions revealed no yield penalty, indicating stable performance across environments. The study highlights the utility of integrating secondary traits such as ASI, SPAD, and CTD with yield for screening drought tolerance. It provides a foundation for selecting parental lines for drought-resilient breeding programs. The findings also offer a physiological dataset that can aid in future efforts on marker-assisted selection and developing drought-resilient maize hybrids.

DOI
Pages
130 - 141
Creative Commons
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2026. Published by Madras Agricultural Students' Union in Madras Agricultural Journal (MAJ). This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited by the user.

Keywords


Drought tolerance Stress tolerance Abiotic stress Maize

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Cite This Article


APA Style

Senthil Natesan, Mohammad Reda Ismail, Aswin Reddy Chilakala, Shivakumar Ravichandran, Mohanapriya Balamurugan, Indhu S. M., Napoleon T., & Jyoti Kaul. (2024). Identification of drought-tolerant maize inbred lines through morphophysiological traits. Madras Agricultural Journal, 111, 130–141. https://doi.org/10.29321/MAJ.10.0MMA27

ACS Style

Senthil Natesan; Mohammad Reda Ismail; Aswin Reddy Chilakala; Shivakumar Ravichandran; Mohanapriya Balamurugan; Indhu S. M.; Napoleon T.; Jyoti Kaul. Identification of Drought-Tolerant Maize Inbred Lines Through Morphophysiological Traits. Madras Agric. J. 2024, 111, 130–141. https://doi.org/10.29321/MAJ.10.0MMA27

AMA Style

Senthil Natesan, Mohammad Reda Ismail, Aswin Reddy Chilakala, Shivakumar Ravichandran, Mohanapriya Balamurugan, Indhu S. M., Napoleon T., Jyoti Kaul. Identification of drought-tolerant maize inbred lines through morphophysiological traits. Madras Agricultural Journal. 2024;111:130–141. doi:10.29321/MAJ.10.0MMA27

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