Screening of maize hybrids and identifying of selecting indicator for drought tolerance.

In the study,33 new maize hybrids which performed well in Yunnan regional test were screened under managed moisture treatments to select elite hybrids with high yield,drought tolerance and ideal agronomic traits.Also,the difference of various traits between two treatments as well as the correlations between various agronomy traits and yield under drought treatment were analyzed to indicate drought influence to maize agronomic traits and yield and to identify several phenotypic traits as selecting indicator for drought tolerance.The results showed that hybrids Xundan 7,Bao 21-413,Yunza 3,Jinrui 6,and Xuanhuangdan 5 were elite drought tolerant hybrids with high yield under two treatments and ideal agronomic traits.Under drought treatment,traits anthesis-silk interval(ASI) were significantly(P0.05) delayed,tip-barren length were significantly(P0.05) lengthened,kernel weight per ear,yield per plant and unit yield were significantly(P0.05) decreased.Traits kernel weight per ear,leaf senescence,yield per plant and coefficient of drought tolerance were selected as selecting indicators for drought tolerance which were significantly(P0.05 or 0.01) correlated with yield.