TITLE:
Potentials of Arbuscular Mycorrhiza Fungus in Tolerating Drought in Maize (Zea mays L.)
AUTHORS:
Odunayo Joseph Olawuyi, Adegboyega Christopher Odebode, Busayo Joshua Babalola, Ezekiel Taiwo Afolayan, Chidinma Pauline Onu
KEYWORDS:
Maize; Gigaspora gigantea; Drought Stress; Tolerance; Growth; Yields
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.5 No.6,
March
24,
2014
ABSTRACT:
Maize is one of the most important cereal crops widely grown for food, feed, and fodder/forage throughout the world in a range of agroecological
environments. Drought stress continues
to haunt the maize farmers across south western part of Nigeria, thereby
leading to low quantity of this essential staple food in the market.
Efforts have been made to enhance the growths and yields in maize by
investigating the influence of Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus (Gigaspora gigantea) on the tolerance of
maize to drought stress. The experiment was conducted in the teaching and research
farm of Babcock University, Ilishan-Remo, Nigeria. The experiment was laid out
in a complete randomized design with four replicates. Data were collected on
eight morphological drought related characters. The objective of this research
work was to evaluate the morpho-agronomic responses and potential of Gigaspora gigantea colonization in maize
drought tolerance, and also to select parents in maize breeding for improved
yield related components. The combined analysis of variance showed significant
(P 0.05) treatment
effect on majority of the traits evaluated. The treatments of Arbuscular
Mycorrhiza Fungus (AMF) produced significant higher growth related traits
suggesting that AMF treated plants had higher potential in influencing the
tolerance to drought. Accession 3 was considered best for most of the traits
studied and can be selected as parents in maize breeding for yield related
components.