Field Screening for Morpho-Physiological Traits in Bread Wheat (Triticum aestivum L. em. Thell) Genotypes under Moisture Stress

Author: Divya Chaudhary, Swati, Jai Prakash Jaiswal, Amarjeet Kumar, Sivendra Joshi, Nimita Kandwal and Babita Bhatt

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Abstract

Moisture stress is one of the main limiting factors for reducing yield in the wheat crop. Therefore, for the development of moisture stress tolerant cultivars, morpho-physiological attributes are an effective tool to screen genotypes with a large adaptation to a range of environments, namely irrigated and rainfed conditions. An experiment was conducted for the identification of moisture stress tolerant wheat genotypes by field screening of sixteen genotypes under irrigated and rainfed conditions. The tolerant genotypes were identified by percent decrease in performance for the morpho-physiological traits under rainfed conditions. In the present investigation, the morphological traits, i.e., 1000 grain weight, grains/spike, grain weight/spike (g) and grain yield/plant (g), were taken into account for the identification of moisture stress-tolerant wheat genotypes. The tolerant genotypes, i.e., BOW/VEE/5/ND/VG9144//KAL/BBB/YACO/4/CHIL/6/CASKOR/3/…, PBW660, HD3086, WH1080, FRANCOLIN#1/BAJ#1, VL3001, BECARD/KACHU were identified on the basis of morphological traits. Whereas, on the basis of a percent decrease in performance in physiological traits, i.e., NDVI at anthesis, NDVI at 15 days after anthesis, canopy temperature depression at anthesis and 15 days after anthesis, chlorophyll content at anthesis and 15 days after anthesis, relative water content and quantum yield were accounted and tolerant genotypes, i.e., BECARD/KACHU, PBW644, PBW660 and FRANCOLIN#1/BAJ#1 were identified. Therefore, these identified genotypes based on morpho-physiological traits can be used in future wheat breeding programmes to develop high-yielding and moisture-stress tolerant cultivars.

Keywords

Wheat, moisture stress, Morphological traits, Physiological traits, Percent decrease

Conclusion

Wheat is a major cereal crop worldwide. The moisture stress is one of the most important limiting factor for wheat yield. The different morpho-physiological traits are key drought tolerance selection factors. Based on these traits, it may be concluded that various genotypes showed tolerance to moisture stress conditions for different traits. Therefore, identified tolerant genotypes can be used in future breeding programmes to develop water stress-tolerant cultivars.

References

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How to cite this article

Divya Chaudhary, Swati, Jai Prakash Jaiswal, Amarjeet Kumar, Sivendra Joshi, Nimita Kandwal and Babita Bhatt (2023). Field Screening for Morpho-Physiological Traits in Bread Wheat (Triticum aestivum L. em. Thell) Genotypes under moisture stress. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 15(2): 758-763.