The Relationship of Water Stress-induced Proline Accumulation and Yield of Corn

Abstract

Corn is one of the important economic crops in Thailand that has faced great environmental limitation such as drought. Without physiological parameters, corn selection for drought tolerance would be impeded. The objectives of this study were to determine proline content accumlated due to water stress treatments and its relationship to corn yield and whether proline content could be used as parameter for corn drought tolerance selection. The inbred line Ki3 and the F1 hybrid DK888 were subjected to water stress at different stages of development, i.e. vegetative, tasseling, silking and grain filling stages. Proline content was determined during water stress treatments and after recovery by using spectrophotometric technique. It was found that water stress had the greatest effect on proline content and yield when treated at tasseling stage in both varieties. Proline content and corn yield were negatively correlated in both varieties. This consistency suggested that proline content might be used as parameter for corn drought tolerance selection.