Multi-environmental evaluation of wheat genotypes for drought tolerance

Drought is a major abiotic stress affecting wheat production worldwide. Present study was conducted to identify drought tolerant wheat lines. In this study, field screening was done in multi-environment for four years followed by validation at molecular level for identifying stable drought tolerant wheat genotypes. In field screening, based on eleven quantitative traits including drought susceptibility index (DSI) under irrigated and non-irrigated conditions in two successive years, 44 wheat genotypes were selected from an initial set of 177 genotypes. These selected lines were further screened for two more years against drought stress. Stability analysis and AMMI biplot was also performed to analyze the stable performance of genotypes across the environments and years. The studied genotypes were also evaluated for the presence of six drought-linked molecular markers. Based on drought susceptibility index, other physiological parameters and molecular analysis, the genotypes namely, ET127225, ET127230, EC531185, ET127236, ET127267 and ET127269 were found to be potential genetic resources for drought tolerance, which can be further used in wheat improvement programme.