EVALUATION OF WHEAT GENOTYPES FOR WATER DEFICIT STRESS TOLERANCE BASED ON PHYSIOLOGICAL TRAITS AND YIELD PERFORMANCE

Abstract

Four wheat genotypes (E 38, BAW 1118, BARI Gom 26, BAW 1130) grown under well water and water deficit stress condition at the research field of Crop Physiology and Ecology department, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University, Dinajpur during the period of November 2015 to April 2016 to evaluate their tolerance based on physiological traits and yield performance against water deficit stress. The experiment was laid out in a Split plot design with three replications. The main plot treatment consisted of two water regimes (Well water condition and Water deficit stress) and four wheat genotypes (E 38, BAW 1118, BARI Gom 26 and BAW 1130) were allotted as sub plot treatments. Wheat genotypes- BAW 1118 and E 38 showed greater stability of flag leaf chlorophyll, greater ability to retain water in leaf, higher level of proline in flag leaf and kernel, higher level of soluble sugar in flag leaf and greater cell membrane stability compared to BARI Gom 26 and BAW 1130 under water deficit condition. Greater grain dry weight spike-1 at physiological maturity, longer grain growth duration, better yield components such as spikes m-2 , grains spike-1 and thousand grain weight under water deficit stress contributed to better tolerance of E 38 and BAW 1118. The order of tolerance based on grain yield was BAW 1118 > E 38> BARI Gom 26 > BAW 1130