PATH ANALYSIS UNDER DIFFERENT DROUGHT STRESS CONDITION IN WHEAT (Triticum aestivum L.)

Abstract

An experiment was conducted at the research field of the Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding with eleven wheat genotypes collected from Wheat Research Centre, BARI, Dinajpur. The wheat genotypes were evaluated in randomized completely blocked design with three replications to study path analysis under different drought stress condition in wheat. The genotypes were namely- BARI GOM 22, BARI GOM 23, BARI GOM 24, BARI GOM 25, BARI GOM 26, BARI GOM 27, BARI GOM 28, BARI GOM 29, BARI GOM 30, BAW 1194 and BAW 1200. Co-relation coefficient and path coefficient were computed on days to 50% germination, days to 50% heading, no. of tillers/plant, no. of spikes per square meter, plant height, days to maturity, spike length, no. of spikelet per spike, no. of grains/spike, yield per plant, thousand grain weight and plot yield. Spike length, plant height, no. of spikelet/spike, no. of grains/spike, yield per plant, plot yield and days to maturity showed significant corelation coefficient. In double irrigation condition, yield/plant showed highest positive direct effect (0.5545) on plot yield. Selection criteria should be yield per plant, plant height, no. of grains/spike, no. of spikes per square meter, days to maturity, days to 50% heading for double irrigation condition. In single irrigation condition, yield/plant showed highest positive direct effect (0.7468) on plot yield. Selection criteria should be yield per plant, plant height, no. of spikes per square meter, no. of spikelet/spike, thousand grain weight, no. of grains/spike, spike length for single irrigation condition. Selection criteria should be spike length, no. of grains/spike, no. of spikes per square meter, days to 50% germination, thousand grain weight, no. of tillers/plant, plant height without irrigation condition. Among these characters, spike length reflected the highest direct effect of (1.0019) towards plot yield; while minimum direct effect was indicated by spikelets per spike (-0.8151) without irrigation condition.