Effects of drought stress on physiological characteristics of drought-tolerant line and drought-sensitive line in maize at seedling stage

A pot experiment was conducted to study the morphological and physiological changes of maize inbred lines including drought-tolerant lines Langhuang,Chang7-2 and drought-sensitive line TS141 under natural drought stress,in order to probe the mechanism of drought tolerance and provide the meterials for improving drought-tolerant germplasm resources and finding the loci of drought-tolerant gene.The results showed that,in three maize inbred lines under drought stress,survival rates and leaves relative water content decreased significantly.Leaves relative conductivity increased significantly.The proline content increased while SOD and POD activities increased.Drought-tolerant lines Langhuang and Chang7-2 had higher survival rates,relative water content,proline concent,SOD,POD activity and lower relative conductivity with a small change,compared with drought-sensitive line TS141.