LS - An International Journal of Life Sciences

Six maize cultivars were grown under the polyethylene glycol (PEG)-6000 induced water stress for a duration of 10 days in pots at prevailing room temperature (T = 26°C ± 2°C). Control samples were watered with distilled water, whereas treatment samples were treated with PEG-6000 solution. After 10 days, protein profile and peroxidase isozymes profile were carried out by leaf tissues. Water stress caused an induction or inhibition in the synthesis of some polypeptides. There appeared nine zones of bands where four band zones of size 14.3, 66.0, 81.7 and 97.4 kDa were monomorphic bands in all the treated and non-treated controls. The newly synthesised protein bands of size 24.5, 29.0 and 54.0 kDa were appeared in the cultivars PMC-6, PHM-1 and in EI-36, respectively. Native-PAGE showed differences in peroxidase isozymes patterns between control and treated cultivars. Peroxidase banding pattern gave three bands expressed among the studied cultivars. Bands one and two were scored as a common band in all treated and non-treated cultivars. These bands differed in intensity between studied cultivars. The intensity of bands was higher in the treated cultivars than respective controls. There was an increase of one band in treated cultivars than non-treated ones in AM-1, PHM-1 and PMC-6 cultivars. By correlating the results of protein and isozymes profiles, it was concluded that the cultivar PMC-6 and PHM-1 performed better to screen as a drought tolerant cultivars.