Stay-green trait ameliorates combined heat and drought stress in wheat

Abstract

The present study was carried out during rabi 2017-18 at ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi to investigate the effect of stay-green trait on grain yield in wheat under combined heat and drought stress. Two high stay green (GCP 6 and GCP 33) and two low stay green (GCP 23 and GCP 30) Recombinant Inbred Lines (RILs) of wheat along with their parents (HI1500/DBW43) were grown in field conditions under timely sown with irrigation (control) and without irrigation (drought stress), and late sown with irrigation (heat stress) and without irrigation (combined heat and drought stress). High stay-green RILs showed the reduced levels of abscisic acid and ethylene production during anthesis stage under heat, drought and combined stress conditions as compared to low stay green RILs. Furthermore, there was significantly better yield was observed in high stay-green RILs as compared to low stay-green RILs. Thus our study concludes that stay-green traits improve the yield in wheat under combined heat and drought stress condition by delaying the senescence through reduced levels of abscisic acid and ethylene.