Abstract: Nutrient characteristics of phosphorus in different maize inbred lines with tolerance to low-P stress were studied at stages of seedling, jointing ,earing, silking in a pot experiment. In the periods of seedling and jointing P uptake efficiency is the main contributor to P tolerance, and the relative P content in 99180 and 99239 (both are P-tolerant genotypes) are higher than that in 99152 (P-sensitive genotype). At earing stage P-resistant genotypes, compared to P-sensitive ones, have higher accumulation of P in upper leaves. At silking stage, P uptake and reallocation efficiency of P-tolerant genotypes are higher than those in 99152. The results also suggested that there are different mechanisms of P nutrient characteristics even in different P-tolerant genotypes. Inbred line 99239, according to the investigation, is considered as an efficient stock in the P-uptake while 99180 falls to the efficient stock of P reallocation.

Key words: Maize, Genotypes, Tolerance to low-P stress, Nutrient characters