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Drought stress during the crop growing season is one of the major threats to higher productivity of maize. The present study was conducted to evaluate the role of beneficial fungus and antioxidants for improving drought tolerance of maize under field conditions. Treatments comprised of three different factors including (1) two levels of available moisture contents (70% and 30% available moisture contents; AMC), (2) seed treatment (untreated seeds and 20 μl g-1 fungus treated seeds) and (3) foliar application of antioxidants (glutathione, ascorbic acid) and fungal suspension. Drought stress decreased the morphological, growth and yield related attributes of maize compared with well-watered treatments. Averaged across the years, the reduction in root and shoot length was 30.5% and 20% respectively and the yield was reduced up to 48% under stress. Rate of lipid peroxidation as well as the production of antioxidants was generally increased under drought, however, seed treatment and foliar spray was effective in enhancing the maize growth and yield under stress condition by suppressing the production of reactive oxygen species. Averaged across the years, maize plants emerged from fungus treated seeds recorded significantly lower activities of SOD (79%), POD (41%) and CAT (84%) and enhanced the yield of maize by 48%. All the foliar spray treatments (fungal suspension, glutathione and ascorbic acid) triggered or at least helped in maintaining the antioxidant defense system of maize plants. Averaged across the years; increase in yield of maize due to foliar spray of fungal suspension, glutathione and ascorbic acid was 69%, 53% and 31%, respectively under drought. In crux, seed treatment with fungus, and foliar spray of glutathione were effective in enhancing the maize drought tolerance and such effects were attributed to alleviate the oxidative damage and maintenance of photosynthetic pigments.
Saima Musaddaq, Abdul Khaliq, Zubair Aslam, Ghulam Murtaza. (2021) ANTIOXIDANTS ENHANCED DROUGHT TOLERANCE AND PRODUCTIVITY OF MAIZE UNDER SEMIARID ENVIRONMENTS, Pakistan Journal of Agricultural Sciences, Volume 58, Issue 3.
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