Varietal difference in pre-germination flooding tolerance and waterlogging tolerance at the seedling stage in maize inbred lines

Abstract

Maize inbred lines, mainly collected from Japan and the United States of America were evaluated for their pre-germination flooding tolerance and waterlogging tolerance at the seedling stage. Pre-germination flooding tolerance, evaluated by germination rate of the seeds soaked for 8 days at 25°C, showed wide variations among 46 lines. Waterlogging tolerance at the seedling stage was evaluated by the dry weight ratio (treatment/control) after exposure to flooding for 2 weeks. The waterlogging tolerance showed an extremely wide variation among 223 inbred lines, and some highly tolerant lines were selected. Correlation coefficients between replications were 0.415 in pre-germination flooding tolerance and 0.464 in waterlogging tolerance, indicating the significant repeatability of the experiments. Pre-germination flooding tolerance of maize was independent of the waterlogging tolerance at the seedling stage.