Exploring molecular variation and combining ability of local and exotic bread wheat genotypes under well-watered and drought conditions.

Drought is one of the most environmental stressors, significantly affecting wheat production, particularly in the face of accelerating climate change. Therefore, developing drought-resistant, high-yielding wheat varieties is essential to ensure sustainable production and maintain global food security as the world population rapidly grows. This study aimed to evaluate the genetic variation of local and imported bread wheat genotypes through simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers and assess their combining ability to identify top-performing genotypes under both normal and drought-stress environments. SSR markers revealed significant genetic diversity among the parental genotypes, which were utilized to develop 28 F1 crosses utilizing diallel mating design. Field trials under well-watered and drought-stressed environments demonstrated that drought significantly reduced all measured agronomic traits. The genotypes were categorized into five clusters based on their drought tolerance, ranging from highly sensitive (group-E) to robustly drought-resistant (group-A). The local variety Sids-12 (P2) was identified as an excellent combiner for breeding shorter and early-maturing cultivars and Line-117 (P3), Line-144 (P4), and Line-123 (P5) for improving grain yield and related traits under drought conditions. The crosses P1×P5, P3×P8, P4×P5, and P6×P7 possessed superior performance under both conditions. Key traits, including plant height, grains per spike, 1,000-grain weight, and spikes per plant, displayed strong correlations with grain yield, providing an effective approach for indirect selection in drought-prone environments.