Drought is one of important environmental stress for plant. Drought has deleterious effect to plant growth including maize (Zea mays L.) such as vegetative and/or reproductive growth, root extension, photosynthesis efficiency, flowering, anthesis-silking interval (ASI), fertilization, and grain filling. In this study, we screened drought tolerant maize in 21 cultivars from different sources, sixteen NAM parent lines (B73, CML103, CML228, CML247, CML277, CML322, CML333, CML69, Ki11, Ki3, Ky21, M37W, Mo18w, NC350, Oh43 and Tx303), four Korean hybrids (Cheongdaok, Gangdaok, Kwangpyeongok and Pyeonganok) and one Southeast Asian genotype (DK9955). Drought stress (DS) index was evaluated with leaf rolling score at seedling stage and ASI at silking date. The leaf rolling scoring of CML228, DK9955 and Ki11 were determined 1.28, 1.85, 1.86, respectively. However, M37W, Kwangpyeongok, B73 and NC350 were determined over the 3. ASI analysis revealed that CML228, CML103, Cheongdaok, NC350, B73, CML322, Kwangpyeongok and Ki11 are represented less than 5 days under DS and less than 3 days of difference between DS and well-watered (WW), but CML69, Ki3, Pyeonganok, M37W, Mo18w and Gangdaok were represented more than 10 days under DS and more than 8 days of difference between DS and WW. Multi-Dimensional Scaling (MDS) analysis determined CML228, Ki11, and CML322 were regarded as drought tolerance cultivars. Eventually, Ki11 showed genetic similarity with Korean cultivars by QTL analysis and MDS analysis. Ki11 has a potential for development of drought tolerance maize with Korean cultivars.

This study was conducted to evaluate maize downy mildew resistance using spreader row technique in Cambodia. A total of forty maize lines were used in this experiment. Seven Korean varieties and seven breeding lines showed high infection rates (80~100%) and highly susceptible (HS) to downy mildew disease in both spring and fall. Also most of nested association mapping (NAM) parent lines were highly susceptible (HS). Meanwhile three inbred lines, Ki3, Ki11, and CML228, showed highly resistant (HR) or resistant (R) in spring and moderately resistant (MR) in fall. These three lines were already known as resistant inbred lines against downy mildew disease. It appears that spreader row technique was suitable for selection of maize downy mildew resistance in Cambodia. The incidence of downy mildew was influenced by weather conditions, especially relative humidity and temperature. Among several inoculation methods to screen for downy mildew resistance, this spreader row technique is effectively and easily used in the field of Southeast Asia.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the drought tolerance in maize seedling using leaf rolling. Nineteen maize resources, seven Nested Association Mapping parents lines, six Korean commercial cultivars, and six Southeast Asia commercial cultivars, were used to examine drought tolerance. The leaf rolling scores were measured on each leaf in three stress conditions with moderate drought (10%), severe drought (7%), and extreme drought (5%). Generally leaf rolling score of seedlings increased at the lower soil water potentials (5~7%). As a result, drought-tolerant cultivars showed lower leaf rolling score (below 2.5) than the drought sensitive cultivars (above 3.5). Nine varieties, NK4043, CML322, DK9955, NK4300, Ki11, DK8868, CML228, LVN99, and LVN10, have been selected for tolerance to drought stress. These results suggest that the leaf rolling score in maize seedling has been made available to indirect index for drought tolerance.

The photochemical characteristics were analyzed in the context of sowing time and different levels of fertilized nitrogen during the maize (Zea mays L.) growth. When maize was early sawn, the fluorescence parameters related with electrontransport, in photosystem II (PSII) and PSI, were effectively enhanced with the higher level of fertilized nitrogen. Highest values were observed in maize leaves grown in double Nfertilized plot. The photochemical parameters were declined in the progress of growth stage. In early growth stage, the fluorescence parameters were highest, and then reduced to about half of the parameters related with electron transport on PSII and PSI at middle and late growth stages. In 1/2 N plot, the photochemical energy dissipation was measured to 13% in term of active reaction center per absorbed photon resulting in decrease in performance index and driving force of electron. This decrease induced to lower the photochemical effectiveness. In 2 N plots, the electron transport flux from QA to QB per cross section and the number of active PSII RCs per cross section were considerably enhanced. It was clearly indicated that the connectivity between photosynthetic PSII and PSI, i.e. electron transport, was far effective.

Maize is one of the most important food and feed crops in the world including Southeast Asia. In spite of numberous efforts with conventional breeding, the maize productions remain low and the loss of yields by drought and downy mildew are still severe in Asia. Genetic improvement of maize has been performed with molecular marker and genetic engineering. Because maize is one of the most widely studied crop for its own genome and has tremendous diversity and variant, maize is considered as a forefront crop in development and estimation of molecular markers for agricultural useful trait in genetics and breeding. Using QTL (Quantitative Trait Loci) and MAS (Marker Assisted Breeding), molecular breeders are able to accelerate the development of drought tolerance or downy mildew resistance maize genotype. The present paper overviews QTL/MAS approaches towards improvement of maize production against drought and downy mildew. We also discuss here the trends and importance of molecular marker and mapping population in maize breeding.