Morpho-Physiological Diversity in Indian Spring Wheat cultivars and Identification of Promising Donor under Terminal Heat Stress

Abstract

© Society for Advancement of Wheat and Barley Research Abstract Assessment of genetic diversity and its application for wheat breeding resulted in enhanced and sustainable production and productivity. One hundred and two spring wheat cultivars were evaluated for 19 agro-morphological and physiological traits under late sown conditions for two years. The cluster analysis revealed significant genetic variability among wheat cultivars that shows the excellent opportunity to bring about improvement through hybridizing the selected genotypes present in distant clusters. The data was further subjected to PCA (principal component analysis) and genotype by trait biplot analysis. The first 2 principal components accounted for 33.8% of total variation. Phenological traits and growing degree days had major contribution towards heat tolerance as indicated by principal component analysis. Correlation analysis revealed that grain yield was positively associated with biological yield and harvest index. Promising cultivars were identified for terminal heat tolerance that can be adapted for growing under late sown condition and further used for breeding improved climate resilient wheat cultivars and genomics study.