Evaluation of Drought Tolerance of Commonly Used Maize Inbred Lines in China

A total of 196 maize inbred lines were evaluated for drought tolerance with alpha-lattice field design under two water regimes in 2007, Hainan province and 2008 in Xinjiang province, respectively. The 12 phenotypic traits including plant stay green, tassel length, plant height, ear height, leaf rolling, kernel weight per ear, hundred kernels weight, ear rownumbers, bared tip, percentage of plant with seeds and kernel number per rowwere investigated in these trials. The canonical correlation analysis of 12 traits investigated showed that four traits of plant height, ASI (Anthesis-silking interval), kernel weight per ear and percentage of plant with seed were identified to evaluate inbred lines for drought tolerance. Based on factor analysis, integrated DTI (Drought tolerance index) of each inbred line was calculated to classify the maize inbred lines tested into 4 different drought-tolerant types: drought tolerance, medium drought tolerance, medium drought susceptible and drought susceptible. 58 maize inbred lines had the same responses for drought tolerance, including 7 drought tolerant inbred, 14 medium tolerant. These materials were provided for the breeding of drought-tolerant germplasm base.