Journal of Taiwan Agricultural Research

Author:Guang-Jauh Shieh*, Wen-Long Tsaur, King-Hsing Yang and Hung-Sung Lu

Abstract:

    Fifteen F₁ cross combinations and their parental inbred lines of maize (Zea mays L.) were analyzed in this study. Four replicates, 3 plants of each genotypes, were tested at the concentrations (5, 25, 50, 100 mM) of ammonium (NH₄⁺) to evaluate the tolerance of maize inbreds and hybrids to ammonium-nitrogen (NH₄⁺-N) maize seedlings were grown in sand culture and supplemented with different concentrations of ammonium in green house, seedlings were harvested at 16 days after application of ammonium-nitrogen (NH₄⁺-N) to determine the shoot, root and total dry mass. Analysis of variance indicated that shoot, root and total dry weight were highly affected by ammonium ion, genotype, and interaction of ammonium x genotype. The shoot dry weight, root dry weight and total dry weight were decreased while the ammonium concentration increased. The F₁ seedling showed more dry weight than the inbred line at various ammonium concentrations. In this trial, the degree of tolerance for ammonium showed variation in inbred lines and their F₁ cross combinations. Based on Griffing’s analysis, the result indicated that the general combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA) showed significant effect on shoot dry weight, root dry weight and total dry weight at various ammonium concentration. The GCA/SCA ratio of dry weight in high NH₄⁺ concentrations (50~l00mM) were larger than low NH₄⁺ concentration (5-25mM). In this trial, the genotype Va26, H95, A661, Va26ÎH95、Va26ÎICAL210、H95ÎHi31、A661Î TA85-17, TA85-17ÎHi31 showed better ammonium tolerance when grown in higher ammonium concentrations.

Key words:Ammonium (NH₄⁺), Maize, Tolerance, Combining ability

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