Morphological Characterization for Identification of Drought Adapted Genotypes in Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) under Drought Stress

Drought is one of the major limitations to wheat production worldwide. This study was designed to identify the drought adapted genotypes among 160 wheat genotypes. Five morphological traits namely leaf morphology, leaf angle, leaf rolling, waxiness on leaf, spike fertility and nine yield traits namely days to heading, days to anthesis, days to maturity, grain filling duration, spikelets per spike, grains per spike, grain weight per spike (g), 1000grain weight (g), and grain yield per plant (g). Grain yield per plant exhibited highly significant and positive correlation with 1000-grain weight, grain weight per spike, waxiness score, indicating dependency of yield on these traits. Based on path analysis, maximum positive direct effect on grain yield per plant was contributed mostly by days to maturity, followed by 1000 grain weight, waxiness score, number of grains per spike, grain weight per spike and leaf rolling score. From our results, waxiness score and leaf rolling score showed strong association with grain yield per plant. We have selected 18 genotypes based on high morphological score aswell-as high grain yield per plant namely; DBW50, HD2985, HD3043, HD2687, HD3059, HD3076, HD3093, HI1531, HW1105, PBN142, PBW502, WH1080, WH730, AUS30354, AUS30518, DRYSDALE, SB187, SSRT17. These genotypes can be utilized in drought breeding programme for development of mapping population, as well as drought resilience varieties for rainfed areas.