'Plant Breeding: Sustaining the Future' Abstracts of the XVIth EUCARPIA Congress, Edinburgh, Scotland, 10-14 September 2001 GENOTYPIC RESPONSES OF MAIZE (ZEA MAYS L) TO DROUGHT STRESS H. KAZEMI, K.H. MAAROOFI, M. MOGHADDAM, M.R. SHAKIBA Faculty of Agriculture, Tabriz University, Tabriz, Iran 51664

Maize (Zea mays L) is grown irrigated in Miandoab, north western city of Iran, where irrigation water becomes limited during its grain filling period and, thus yield of maize decreases significantly. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of drought stress on grain yield and yield components of 8 midseason maize hybrids. The experiment was conducted in a group balanced block split plot design with three replications under two irrigation regimes during 1998-9 growing season. Several morphological, physiological and phenologica; traits were evaluated by using different drought tolerance selection criteria. Selection based on Stress Susceptibility and Geometric Mean Productivity indices were revealed to be more effective in this respect than other criteria. In general, selection traits such as kernel weight, kernels row-1, ear length and plant height, under non-stress condition and shorter ASI, higher kernels row-1 and ground cover, under stress condition, proved to be related to higher yields.