Evolution of post-anthesis drought tolerance in different wheat genotypes (Triticum aestivum L.)

Abstract

The present study aimed to estimate wheat variety in response to post-anthesis water stress and correlation among various plant traits. An experiment was conducted in the field area at the Faculty of Agriculture, Lasbela University of Agriculture, Water & Marine Science, Uthal, under normal (irrigated) and drought (water stress) conditions during the post-anthesis growth period, in a Randomized Completely Block Design with three replications. In both conditions, analysis of variance showed significant results for days to physiological maturity, the second leaf next to the flag leaf dry weight, and the third leaf next to the dry weight next to the flag leaf. Furthermore, mean performance was observed to be highest in the Shalkot-14 variety for germination percentage, days to tillering, days to booting, days to heading, second leaf next to flag leaf dry weight, and number of grains per spike. The cultivar Sarsabz expressed good performance for flag leaf dry weight, seed dry weight, grain yield per plant, electrical conductivity, and biological yield per plant. Similarly, the variety NIA Amber expressed its performance for the third leaf next to flag leaf dry weight, seed dry weight, and number of seeds per plant, respectively. A significant positive correlation coefficient was also noted for various yield-contributing traits. It was revealed that genes in all quantitative and qualitative characteristics were shared commonly and expressed under water deficit conditions. Therefore, this study suggests that these genotypes should be studied for further investigations in larger germplasm pools to assess the combining ability of different yield-contributing parameters and resistance against abiotic stresses, i.e., drought.