COMPARATIVE RESPONSES OF SELECTED CORN (ZEA-MAYS L) HYBRIDS TO EPTC AND METOLACHLOR

Eleven corn (Zea mays L.) hybrids were evaluated in terms of their growth response to treatment with a high rate (6.7 kg ha-1) of the thiocarbamate herbicide, EPTC, and the chloroacetanilide herbicide, metolachlor. Most of the tested hybrids were more susceptible to treatment with metolachlor than EPTC. It was apparent that the degree of tolerance observed for one of these herbicides was not necessarily matched by a similar degree of tolerance to the other. No correlation between glutathione content and herbicide tolerance was observed for the 11 hybrids tested. A relationship between glutathione S-transferase (GST) activity and metolachlor tolerance was suggested by this study. In general, higher GST activities were characteristic of the more tolerant hybrids. The monooxygenase inhibitor, piperonyl butoxide (PBO), in combination with EPTC resulted in a synergistic effect on eight of the eleven tested hybrids. PBO acted synergistically in combination with metolachlor on only two hybrids and to a lesser extent than with EPTC. Soil treatment with the oxygen evolving compound, calcium peroxide, appeared to have an antagonistic effect on the growth response of 'Northrup-King 9283' corn treated with EPTC. In contrast the same treatment had a synergistic effect on the growth response of this hybrid to metolachlor. Both the synergism of EPTC by PBO and the antagonism by calcium peroxide are believed to be due to the importance of monooxygenase activity in the metabolism of EPTC. Tolerance to EPTC is consequently more likely to be influenced by oxidative reactions than is tolerance to metolachlor.