摘要
Wheat, one of the most important staple food crops in the world, is adversely affected by drought. With a view to understand the traits, which can be used as a quick criteria for early prediction of drought response, field and laboratory experiments were conducted to evaluate eight wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) genotypes. Moisture stress in laboratory experiment was induced by polyethylene glycol-6000 (PEG-6000) (0, 15 and 20?%), with three replications to study germination related traits of wheat genotypes. The PEG induced decline in the shoot and root biomass and coleoptiles length was greater in genotypes PBW 343, HD 2733, PBW 373 and HD 2967, while relatively lesser decrease was observed in C 306, HD 2987, HD 3016 and NI 3039. The effect was more prominent in case of 20?% PEG as compared to 15?% PEG. All the genotypes showed decrease in biomass, grain yield, 1,000 grain weight and harvest index under water stress condition, but decline was more severe in case of PBW 343, HD 2733, PBW 373 and HD 2967 as compared to C 306, HD 2987, HD 3016 and NI 3039. It can be concluded from the present experiments that the PEG technique would be suitable for screening drought tolerance in large populations prior to yield testing trials, which could significantly reduce the overall cost and manpower. Using this method maximum germplasm can be tested for drought tolerance under limited space and resources.