PJB-2020-436
Genetic diversity for morpho-physiological traits in bread wheat.
Jawad Ali Shah
Abstract
GENETIC DIVERSITY FOR MORPHO-PHYSIOLOGICAL TRAITS IN BREAD WHEAT ABSTRACT A set of 45 wheat genotypes along with one check cultivar were evaluated under four different environmental conditions i.e. rain-fed and irrigated crops planted under normal and late sowing at the research farm of The University of Agriculture Peshawar, Pakistan during 2018-19. All the genotypes were sown in alpha lattice design with three replications across all four environments. Analysis of variances showed significant differences among genotypes for all studied traits except days to maturity, spikelets spike-1, harvest index and relative water content. Highly significant differences were observed among genotypes for grain yield under normal irrigated, normal rain-fed, late irrigated and late rain-fed environmental conditions. However, combined analysis showed non-significant genotype × environment interaction for all traits except plant height, spike length, thousand-grain weight and chlorophyll content. Most of the genotypes showed superior performance compared to Pirsabak-13 (check cultivar) for grain yield. Genotype CIM-24 appeared as high yielding (3445 kg ha-1) genotype while genotype CIM-31 exhibited the least value for grain yield (1756 kg ha-1). Leaf chlorophyll content showed significant genotypic association with grain yield and yield contributing traits such as tillers m-2 grain weight spike-1, thousand grain weight and biological yield. Leaf chlorophyll content remained an important factor for growth of wheat plant. Genotype CIM-24 exhibited the highest mean value (74%) while genotypes CIM-10, 37, and 47 showed lowest (65%) chlorophyll content. In plants, the availability of water is measured by water potential and Leaf relative water content emerges as an improved indicator for measurement of water status in leaf. Cultivars that can tolerate drought exhibit higher leaf relative water content under stress conditions. The highest mean value for leaf relative water content was exhibited by genotype CIM-50 while the minimum mean value was recorded for CIM-23. The heritability estimates for investigated traits was high to moderate except for days to maturity and relative water content which showed low heritability across four environments. Similarly, the genetic advance also ranged from moderate to high indicating the influence of additive gene action on these characters. Characters with high heritability packed with high genetic advance may be useful for selection of superior genotype in future wheat breeding programs. In the case of genotypic and phenotypic association among studied attributes, plant height, grain weight spike-1, tillers m-2, thousand-grain weight and biological yield were significantly associated with grain yield.
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