Seed Oil Content and Fatty Acids Composition of Maize under Heat and Water Stress

Document Type : Original Article

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Department of Botany, Faculty of Agriculture, Alexandria, Egypt

Abstract

Water deficiency and high temperature has adverse effect on the economic importance of maize crop. A field experiment was conducted during summer 2012 to assess the variation in oil content and fatty acids synthesis with respect to drought and heat tolerance in eight maize genotypes at a farm in El-Omaid village, El Hamam city, Marsa Matroh government. Relative water content (RWC) and cell membrane thermos-stability (CMT) were measured and oil content and fatty acids composition were also estimated. Water deficit and heat caused a significant reduction in RWC of all genotypes studied in contrary to cell membrane injury which was elevated significantly due to stresses. Analysis of maize seeds showed that the oil content decreased significantly. It was found that genotypes have significant effect on oleic, linoleic and arachidic acids, while water stress affected significantly on palmitic, oleic, linoleic, arachidic and homo-gamma-linolenic acids. Furthermore, the interaction between genotypes and water stress had a significant effect on both oleic and linoleic. On the other hand, there were an increasing in both ratios of unsaturated/saturated fatty acids (average increased from 3.15 to 3.86) and oleic/Stearic (average increased from 4.89 to 7.73) revealed that unsaturation of fatty acids increased under both stresses. The results indicated that genotype DT62 and DT190 have oil composition less affected under drought and heat stress and it's recommended to be used   in the maize improvement programmers in Egypt.

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