Screening and inheritance pattern studies of maize seedlings under normal and water stress conditions

An experiment was conducted during 2011-12 at agronomic research institute,ayub agricultural research institute,faisalabad,pakistan to investigate the inheritance pattern of seedling traits under drought condition. fifty maize inbred lines collected from different sources were screened at seedling stage for water stress tolerance in glasshouse. data were collected for fresh root and shoot length,fresh root and shoot weight,dry root and shoot weight,root /shoot ratio and relative water content and analysed statistically. all seedling traits were significantly higher (p≤0.05) for drought tolerant genotype (y-26) than drought sensitive genotypes. one tolerant genotype y-26 and one susceptible (y-113) inbred lines were selected on the basis of dry root weight,root/shoot ratio,relative water content and used to develop six generations (p1,p2,f1,f2,bc1 and bc2). the generations were evaluated in glasshouse under normal and water stress conditions. additive and dominance genetic effects were prominent for all seedling traits under normal condition except fresh and dry root weight which had additive genetic effects. similarly additive and dominance gene action was involved for all seedling traits under water stress condition except fresh root length and fresh and dry root weight,which were under additive genetic control.