Accessing Potential of Seedling Traits for Screening of Wheat Genotypes Under Drought Conditions

Abstract

Drought stress causes considerable decrease in wheat yield especially in developing countries like Pakistan. In current study, seedling traits i.e., root length, shoot length, shoot fresh weight, shoot dry weight and root to shoot (length) ratio were selected to find their effectiveness in evaluating drought tolerance of wheat genotypes. It was found that different genotypes showed different response under normal and drought conditions as mean squares for genotypes were significant. When plant is exposed to stress, it tries to overcome the stress by adopting different strategies like extending root system to reach the deep soil water. Increase in stress causes reduction in both root and shoot length. Genotypes named Faisalabad-08, Sehar-06, 9633, 9507 and lasani-08 showed maximum and high root length under normal conditions but their root length decreased drastically when exposed to drought environment. Because of their behavior they are tagged as drought susceptible genotypes. Genotypes Chakwal-86, Ass-11, Manthar-2003, Miraj 2008, Chakwal-50, 9488, 9805, 9859, 9512 and 9637 showed high values for root length under drought condition and while comparing their performance under both the environments i.e., normal and drought, their root length decreased non-significantly. So these genotypes are tagged as drought tolerant genotypes.