Character association studies of seedling traits in different wheat genotypes under moisture stress conditions.

Wheat improvement in rainfed areas requires reliable assessment for drought tolerance. Forty three diverse wheat genotypes including local land races (LLR) were screened following completely randomized design under controlled condition at PMAS Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi during 2011. Different concentrations of PEG-6000 were used to induce moisture stress at germination and seedling stage. Data revealed a decreasing trend in values for all traits with the increasing concentrations of PEG-6000. The genotypes showed higher values for germination percentage, germination rate index (GRI), root length, shoot length, coleoptile length, seedling vigor index, fresh root weight, dry root weight, fresh shoot weight and dry shoot weight under normal condition. The genotype, Faisalabad-2008 had the highest germination percentage (100) and germination rate index (17.73), Lasani-2008 showed maximum value for root length (18.28 cm), Chenab-70 attained maximum shoot length (12.05 cm) and dry root weight (0.169 g), LLR-14 showed maximum value for coleoptile length (4.08 cm), Pak-81 exhibited maximum value for seedling vigor index (1892.6) and dry shoot weight (0.251 g), 99FJ-03 showed the highest value for fresh root weight (0.269 g) and maximum fresh shoot weight (0.350 g) was observed for Seri-82. Whereas minimum germination percentage (72.50) and fresh shoot weight (0.212 g) was observed for LLR-21. The genotype LLR-17 showed minimum values for GRI (10.72) and fresh root weight (0.144 g), LLR-32 exhibited minimum root length (11.00 cm) and dry root weight (0.109 g), WC-25 attained minimum shoot length (7.64 cm) and minimum coleoptile length (2.41 cm) was recorded for Chakwal-50. LLR-29 and LLR-30 had minimum seedling vigor index (1288.5) and dry shoot weight (0.118 g) respectively. Correlation studies revealed considerable and positive correlation among seedling traits. Root length showed significant correlation with coleoptile length (0.80) and fresh root weight (0.82). Fresh root weight showed considerable correlation with fresh shoot weight (0.89) and dry shoot weight (0.90).