Experimental findings on antioxidant system
indicate that two maize genotypes responded
differently under normal and water stress
conditions. The superoxide dismutase activity
enhanced continuously with increasing water stress
in both the genotypes. However, the percent
enhancement was higher in Giza 2. Under nonstress
conditions, the SOD activity was higher in
Trihybrid 321 (Table 1). It is known that plants
have a well-organized defense system against ROS
under stress conditions and SOD constitutes the
first line of defense via detoxification of superoxide
radicals (Sairam et al., 2000). Comparatively higher
increment of SOD activity in Giza 2 might have