Conventional and Molecular Breeding for Development of Drought Tolerant Maize Cultivars

Abstract In crop plants, possibility of attaining higher production level depends on the magnitude of genetic potential of germplasm and environmental conditions. Drought being the major abiotic stress, adversely affects the growth and development ultimately economic yield of maize crop in variety of ways. The precise knowledge of drought sensitive crop stages, drought tolerance imparting traits, screening techniques and breeding strategies are having the fundamental prerequisite for development of drought tolerant maize cultivars. After screening of germplasm on account of sensitive stages and tolerance imparting traits under appropriate environmental conditions, classical or molecular breeding can be adopted for developing cultivars suitable for moisture limited condition. Conventional method of hybrid breeding for drought tolerance is been utilized for long history. Currently, with science and technology advancement in genomics and phenomics, molecular breeding would have the significant role in the development of drought tolerant maize cultivars. Keywords: Maize, drought, MAS, QTLs, transgenics Cite this article: Manjeet Kumar, Meenakshi Uniyal, Naveen Kumar, Sudhir Kumar, Rishipal Gangwar. Conventional and Molecular Breeding for Development of Drought Tolerant Maize Cultivars. Research & Reviews: Journal of Crop Science and Technology . 2015; 4(1): 1–3p.