4TH International Congress on Technology - Engineering & SCIENCE - Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia (2017-08-05)

Improvement In Salinity Tolerance Of Hybrid Maize Callus With Thiourea Medium Supplementation A Comprehensive Study Towards Betterment Of Crops
In Vivo and In Vitro experiments were conducted to examine the alleviating role of thiourea on antioxidants and some vital physiological attributes in salt stressed maize hybrids. Medium supplementation of 400 µM thiourea (selected from previous experiments) was applied on two maize hybrids 33M15 and DK6789 (selected from previous experiments). The maize hybrid 33M15 performed better than DK6789. Immature embryo were subjected to medium supplemented with thiourea and salt (120mM NaCl) separately and in combination. Salt stress suppressed growth at whole plant level and callus induction and regeneration percentage, may be due to increased oxidative damage.Thiourea medium supplementation up regulated antioxidant activity and improved morphological characters were observed. Thus thiourea medium supplementation significantly improved salinity tolerance of hybrid maize callus by reduced hydrogen peroxide, malondialdehyde and total free amino acids and altered activities of antioxidant enzymes as well as increased osmolyte and pigments accumulation under saline regimes. So thiourea supplementation could be great achievement towards maize growth at whole plant level and tissue culture and advanced techniques that require regenerable callus best at quality and quantity levels as thiourea improved callus quantity and quality above twenty folds over the control
Tayyaba Sanaullah