IDENTIFICATION OF DROUGHT-TOLERANT WHEAT (TRITICUM AESTIVUM L) CULTIVARS BASED ON THE ASSOCIATIONS OF IN-VITRO & IN-VIVO PREDICTORS THROUGH POLYETHYLENE GLYCOL (PEG 6000) MEDIATED OSMOTIC STRESS

Abstract

Drought tolerance has been the criterion under water stress conditions. The present study was therefore evaluated in six wheat genotypes viz. (IBWSN-1010, IBWSN-1025, TD-1, ESW-9525,Khirman and Chakwal-86). Experiment first occupied with different polyethylene glycol (PEG 6000) concentration 0.0, -0.5, -0.75, -1.0 MPa, where is another experiment was laid out complete randomized design (CRD) along with two treatments (T1 control normal four irrigations) and (T2 terminal drought T. drought) conditions with replication thrice, has been used to induce drought tolerance. Different seedling parameters as agronomical traits, named, Plant height (cm), Spike length (cm), Number of Tiller Plant-1, Straw weight/plant (g), 100 Grain weight (g), Seed index (g), Days to 75% heading; Days to 75% maturity. The results depicted that ESW-9525 and IBWSN-1010 wheat cultivars performed better as compared to both check varieties (Khirman and Chakwal-86). The mean squares of variance showed that different osmotic potential had meaningful impact on most of the characters excluding root dry weight. Moreover, using all seedling growth parameters, under consideration can be utilized as selective characters to evaluate among resistant and susceptible cultivars in water stress under laboratory experiment and breeding programs seems to be additional desired for evaluation in water stress.