Abstract:In order to investigate the zinc sensitivity of different genotype maize seedlings, the pre-screened maize hybrids with different zinc sensitivity—Tiannong 9 (TN9) and Xinyu 9 (XY9) were employed as experimental materials, starting with the examination of effects of different zinc concentrations (0.00, 0.01, 0.1, 1.0, 10.0, 100μmol·L-1) on the photosynthetic pigment content, photosynthetic role parameters and chlorophyll fluorescence characteristics in maize seedlings. The results showed that the optimal Zn concentration for the growth of maize seedlings was 0.1 to 1 μmol·L-1, both low-level zinc (0 to 0.01 μmol·L-1) and high-level zinc (10 to 100 μmol·L-1) treatments had inhibitory effects on the growth of different genotypes of maize seedlings. The photosynthetic parameters and photosynthetic pigment content of XY9 declined significantly under low-level zinc and high-level zinc treatment which led to stronger dynamic response of plant growth and dry matter accumulation to the increasing zinc concentration, while TN9 had higher adaptability to low-level zinc and high-level zinc environments. At the same time, along with the increasing of zinc concentration, the zinc content and accumulation in maize plants were increased gradually, while the utilization rate of zinc was reduced gradually. The zinc accumulation of XY9 was lower than TN9, but the utilization rate was higher than TN9. Compared to the zinc insensitive variety, the effects of zinc concentration on zinc absorption, accumulation and utilization of sensitive variety were more obvious. This study provided a theoretical basis for the research of plant zinc efficient utilization.