STUDY OF WHEAT (TRITICUM AESTIVUM L.)

J Agric. Res., 2016, Vol. 54(2): 161-171 ISSN: Online: 2076-7897, Print:0368-1157 http://www.jar.com.pk

STUDY OF WHEAT (TRITICUM AESTIVUM L.) GENOTYPES UNDER CONTRASTING MOISTURE REGIMES AT MATURITY STAGE Saira Shaheen, Ghulam Shabbir*, Uzma Javed and Abdul Rehman Qaisar**

ABSTRACT Present study was carried out to evaluate twenty five diverse wheat genotypes for drought tolerance under contrasting moisture regimes at Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, PMAS, Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi during rabi 2012-13. The experiment was laid out in RCBD with two replications under rainfed and moisture stress conditions. At maturity stage total soluble sugar, grain filling duration, chlorophyll content, days to heading, proline content, days to maturity, leaf area, grain yield and grain filling duration were determined for contrasting regimes. Under rainfed conditions highest values of 2 days to heading (135.50), chlorophyll content (47) and leaf area (63 cm ) was observed in triticale and highest value of proline content (0.076) and days to heading (136) was shown by Zarghoona. Highest value for total soluble sugar (5.952) was observed in Buck-Briclr. Shafaq-06 showed highest value for grain filling duration (47.5). Highest value for days to maturity (175) was shown by WC-445 and grain yield (453) by Kaghan-93. Under moisture controlled conditions highest value for chlorophyll content (45) was observed in Maxi-Pak and for proline content (0.2748) in Triticale, WC-20 showed highest value for total soluble sugar (15.13), Zarlashta showed highest value for days to maturity (169) and Shafaq-06 for grain filling duration (47), highest value of leaf area (32 2 cm ) and days to heading (135) were observed in Zarghoona and highest value for grain yield (402g) was recorded by Kaghan-93 followed by Triticale (331g) and inqilab-91 (290g). Among twenty five screened genotypes Kaghan-93, Inqilab-91, BWP-94, Shafaq-06, Chenab-70, Triticale, Zarghoona and CH-50 showed drought tolerance and can be used further for drought related research programmes. KEYWORDS: Triticum aestivum; wheat; drought stress; contrasting moisture regimes; screening; rainfed; Pakistan.

*Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Pir Mehar Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, **Department of communication, University of Sargodha, Pakistan.

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INTRODUCTION Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is an essential food for people of Pakistan (12, 23). It was cultivated on 8.9 million hectares area and country produced 25.21 million tonnes of grains (3). Seventy percent of agricultural land (22.05 million hectares) is irrigated in Pakistan whereas thirty percent is rainfed (6.6 million hectares). In Pakistan annual rainfall is about 350-500 mm and most importantly it is uneven with its unpredictable distribution in this thirty percent area. In rainfed areas agricultural crops rely on seasonal rain and previously well-preserved moisture during cropping season. Wheat was cultivated on 9.1316 million hectares area during the year 2009-2010. Among this cultivated land 8.0755 million hectares area was irrigated through irrigation system whereas remaining 1.0561 million hectares area was dependent on conserved moisture in rainfed conditions for cultivation. Area under irrigation system produced 23.3108 million tons of wheat averaging 2770 kg yield per hectare and areas under rainfed condition produced wheat averaging 893 kg per hectare (4). It shows that there is a huge yield gap between irrigated and rainfed systems. In wheat production drought is the common abiotic stress worldwide and in Pakistan. Drought is the major stress which changes gene expression and process of metabolism by affecting plant growth and development (21). During vegetative growth moisture stress did not affect the grain yield but result in 10% less grain yield at maturity stage (7). Under irrigated and rainfed conditions for improvement in grain yield criteria for optimum selection are length ear, days to 50 percent heading, 1000 grains weight grains per ear and number of ears per meter (6). Drought severely affects activities essential for plants growth such as molecular, physiological, biochemical morphological etc. which results into reduction of transpiration due to consecutive closure of stomata; growth inhibition; photosynthesis inhibition and protein contents changes to manage with osmotic changes in their tissues (20, 28). In drought susceptible genotypes moisture stress decreased chlorophyll content, photosynthesis rates and increased proline content, dark respiration, and ABA (5( . In the light of mentioned factors the present study was planned for screening genotypes of wheat at maturity stage under contrasting moisture regimes. MATERIALS AND METHODS The experiment was conducted at Pir Mehar Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi in Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics during J. Agric. Res., 2016, 54(2)

Study of wheat genotypes under contrasting moisture

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rabi 2012-13. Twenty five diverse wheat genotypes (Table 1) were used as research material to test their drought tolerance under contrasting moisture regimes. Two replications were used for planting genotypes under rainfed and moisture stresses conditions by using RCBD. Under rainfed conditions crop was grown under natural field conditions and moisture source was conserved ground water and seasonal rain. Under moisture stress conditions crop was grown under tunnel that was covered with polythene sheet after seedling establishment to protect the crop from natural precipitation and moisture source was only conserved ground water. Data was taken at maturity stage for leaf area (cm2), chlorophyll content, days to heading, proline content, grain filling duration(days), total soluble sugar, days to maturity and grain yield per square meter (g). Days to heading is number of days taken by plants from sowing till 50 percent heading. Early maturity is associated with less number of days required for flowering which assists to avoid terminal drought period. Grain yield per m2 determined by harvesting and threshing the plants from an area of one meter square and their weight was recorded in grams. Chlorophyll content and leaf area was measured by chlorophyll meter (SPAD-502) and leaf area meter (LI-3000/Lambda Instrument Corp. Lincolin, Nebraska, USA), respectively. Leaf area is used as index to find out the reproductive scheme of a plant based upon levels of humidity and light. Proline is one of those osmolytes that plant build up to protect itself from moisture deficiency. Total soluble sugars are the osmolytes that increased to maintain turgor pressure and cell membrane stability under moisture stress. Table 1. S. No. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.

List of wheat genotypes used in the experiment. Genotypes Kaghan-93 Inqalab-91 Auocet BWP-94 WC-445 Zarlashta Suleman-96 Punjab-85 LUAN Punjab-96 WC-25 Tatara Shafaq-06

S. No. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25.

Genotypes Tronce Mexi-Pak Buck-Briclr Sutlaj-86 WC-20 Chenab-70 Triticale Zarghoona WC-23 Abadgar AUR0809 CH-50

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Statistical analysis Following Steel et al. (27) collected data were subjected to statistical analysis to determine differences among the means of various genotypes for different traits. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Data (Table 2 and 3) showed significant differences among genotypes total soluble sugar, grain filling duration, chlorophyll content, days to heading, proline content, days to maturity, leaf area, grain yield and grain filling duration under rainfed and moisture stress conditions. Table 2. Analysis of variance of wheat genotypes at maturity stage in rainfed conditions. SOV Genotype Replication

df 24 1

Error

24

Chl 16* 28. 5 14

Pro 2.5E-04* 1.0E-05

TSS 3.78* 0.02

LA 204* 12.1

DH 42* 40.5

DM 18* 0.32

GD 34* 44.1

GY 9997* 14.5

1.9E-06

0.009

9.4

2.21

2.40

3.05

486

Table 3. Analysis of variance of wheat genotypes at maturity stage in moisture stress conditions. SOV df Chl Pro TSS LA DH DM GD GY Genotype 24 52* 0.005* 20.6* 37* 36.4* 59* 87* 6588* Replication 1 0.04 5.010E-09 0.001 0.01 121.6 0.72 104 444 Error 24 1.3 8.461E-07 0.042 2.17 5.305 1.59 5.5 359 *Highly significant, SOV= Source of variation, df= Degree of freedom, Chl= Chlorophyll content, Pro=Proline, TSS= Total soluble sugar, LA=Leaf area, DH=Days to heading , DM=Days to maturity, GD=Grain filling duration, GY=Grain yield

Chlorophyll content Data (Table 4) revealed that under rainfed conditions range of chlorophyll content was 31 to 47. Highest (47) and lowest (31) values of chlorophyll content were shown by Triticale and Maxi-Pak, respectively. Whereas, under moisture stress conditions chlorophyll content ranged from 25 to 45. MaxiPak and WC-25 showed highest (45) and lowest (25) values of chlorophyll content, respectively (Table 5). As a result of controlled moisture conditions there was minor decrease in chlorophyll content and results are in accordance with findings of Keyvan (18). But our findings are contrary to those of Akhkha et al., (5) who reported that under drought stress chlorophyll content was increased. J. Agric. Res., 2016, 54(2)


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Proline content Under drought/rainfed conditions proline content increased and genotypes having higher proline content showed greater tolerance (Table 4). The range of proline content was 0.032 to 0.076 mg/g under rainfed conditions. Zarghoona and Buck-Briclr showed highest (0.076) and lowest (0.032) values for proline content, respectively. Whereas, at maturity stage range of proline content was 0.042 to 0.275 mg/g under controlled moisture conditions. Highest (0.2748) value of proline content was observed in Triticale and lowest in Suleman-96 and Buck-Briclr (0.042) (Table 5). Proline content increased under controlled moisture conditions revealing that it can be used as an index of drought tolerance. These findings are in agreement with the results of Bayoumi et al. (9), Farshadfar et al. (14), who proved that in wheat, proline content had positive correlation with yield under moisture stress. Total soluble sugar Under rainfed conditions range of total soluble sugar was 0.089 to 5.952 mg/g. Buck-Briclr gave highest (5.952 mg/g) and Auocet and Zarlashta gave lowest (0.089 mg/g) values for total soluble sugar (Table 4). At maturity stage under controlled moisture conditions total soluble sugar ranged from 0.660 to 15.128. Highest (15.13 mg/g) and lowest (0.476 mg/g) values for total soluble sugar were observed in WC-20 and Tatara, respectively (Table 5). Under controlled moisture conditions increase in total soluble sugar can be used as an index of drought tolerance. The results are similar to Johari-Pireivatlou et al., (16) who proved that in wheat total soluble sugar was increased after anthesis by drought stress. Leaf area Range of leaf area was 15 to 63 cm2 under rainfed conditions. Highest value (63 cm2) for leaf area was observed in Triticale and lowest (15 cm2) in Suleman-96 (Table 5). Whereas, under moisture controlled condition leaf area ranged from 14 to 31 cm2. Zarghoona and Suleman-96 showed highest (32 cm2) and lowest (14 cm2) values for leaf area, respectively (Table 6). Under controlled moisture conditions leaf area decreased to keep away moisture stress. It revealed that leaf area decrease under drought stress. These findings are in accordance with result of Fischer and Wood (15); Karamanos and Papatheohari (17) and Blum (10, 11) who said that lower leaf area index helps the plant breeders to assess the genotypes having low yield because it keeps away moisture stress. However low leaf area is not correlated with high grain yield. J. Agric. Res., 2016, 54(2)


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Days to heading Days to heading ranged from 117-136 under rainfed conditions. Highest value (136) for days to heading was observed in Buck-Bricler and Zarghoona and lowest (117) in Suleman-96 (Table 4). At maturity stage days to heading ranged from 117-135 under controlled moisture condition. Highest value (135) for days to heading was observed in Zarghoona and lowest value (117) in Shafaq-06 (Table 5). Results are in accordance with Benmoussa and Achouch (10). Days to maturity Days to maturity ranged from 162-175 under rainfed condition. Highest (175) days to maturity were taken by WC-445 (175) and lowest (162) by Tatara (Table 4). Under controlled moisture condition at maturity stage days to maturity ranged from 150-169. Where, highest days to maturity were taken by Zarlashta (169) followed by Kaghan-93, WC-445 and Maxi-Pak (168). Whereas, lowest (150) days to maturity were taken by LUAN (Table 5). Number of days to maturity are used as index for drought tolerance because late maturing crops are highly susceptible to moisture stress. The results are in accordance with outcomes by Muhammad (23) and Ahmad et al. (2). Grain filling duration Grain filling duration ranged from 33-48 days under rainfed conditions. Highest days (47.5) for grain filling was observed in Shafaq-06 and lowest days (33) in Triticale (Table 4). Range of grain filling duration was 24-47 days under controlled moisture condition at maturity stage. Shafaq-06 showed highest value (47.5) for grain filling duration and CH-50 showed lowest (25) value (Table 5). Longer grain filling period results more grain yield because it is related to yield and thousand grain weight. Our findings are in line with results of Kilic and Yagbasan (19). Grain yield (g/m2) Under rainfed conditions grain yield ranged from 143-453 g per square meter. Highest grain yield was recorded in Kaghan-93 (453) followed by BWP-94(432). Whereas, lowest in (143) grain yield was recorded in BuckBriclr (Table 4). On the other hand under controlled moisture conditions grain yield ranged from 163-402. Highest value for grain yield was shown by J. Agric. Res., 2016, 54(2)


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Kaghan-93 (402) followed by Triticale (331) and Inqalab-91(290). Lowest (163) for grain yield was recorded in Buck-Briclr (Table 5). CONCLUSION It was concluded that moisture stress at maturity stage is drastic for grain yield because it affects different morphological and physiological traits of wheat genotypes. Out of twenty five genotypes screened Kaghan-93, Inqalab-91, BWP-94, Shafaq-06, Chenab-70, Triticale, Zarghoona and CH50 showed good performance against moisture stress. So these genotypes have drought tolerance and can be used for further drought related research programme. REFERENCES 1.

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Accepted: June 01, 2016 ***

CONTRIBUTION OF AUTHORS: Saira Shaheen

:

Conducted the experimental and prepared the writeup. Planned the research and reviewed the literature.

Ghulam Shabbir

:

Uzma Javed

:

Assisted in field work.

Abdul Rehman Qaisar

:

Statistical analysis of results.

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