Wheat Grains Germination and Seedling Growth Performance under Drought Condition

Abstract

Drought is one of the most critical abiotic factors especially in warm dry areas yielding limited crop. Ten wheat genotypes tested for drought tolerance at germination stage. Polyethylene Glycol-8000 used to induce -1.7 and -3.5 bars osmotic potential as compared to control treatment with three replications in factorial experiment with completely Randomized Design(CRD).The studied parameters showed a decreasing in style of response to increment of PEG concentration.The lowest  Final  Germination  Percentage  (FGP)  mean  recorded was 73.23 % under -3.5 bars as compared to control. Means of Daily Germination time (MDG), Germination Index (GI) and Coefficient of Velocity Germination (CVG) have been decreased from 4.04, 3.23 and 81.64 at control treatment to 2.46, 1.77 and 69.21 at severe drought level. But the highest CVG; 83.34 recorded by Azady under 160 g/ L PEG. In addition under -3.5 bar treatment lowest means of shoot and root length recorded; 3.34 and 1.92 cm as compared to control treatment. While, lowest shoot weight and whole seedling weight; 0.07 and 0.079 g recorded by Abu-ghreb, but lowest root dry weight 0.008 g was recorded by Adena. While, a significant increase observed in proline content in all genotypes at 160 g PEG-8000/ L medium. Ezz, Sham-6, Azady, Rabeaa and Riagary seedlings’ accumulated more proline as compared to Tammuz-2, Adena, Abu-ghreb, Abehade and Ebba-99. According to the studied parameters a dendrogram constructed. The genotypes classified into two groups. Resistant; include Ezz, Sham-6, Azady, Rabeaa and Rizgary. Sensitive; includes Tammuz-2, Adena, Abu- ghreb, Abehade and Ebba-99.