Effect of Lead Acetate (Pb(C2H3O2)2) on Yield and Yield Associated Traits of Different Wheat (Triticum Aestivum L.) Varieties

Heavy metals in the environment can cause serious health problems to plants and animals. Plants absorb Pb from the soil as well as from the air. Experiments in the laboratory and in the pot-house conditions were carried out at the center for the environmental sciences, the University of Sindh, Jamshoro to see the effect of lead acetate Pb(C2H3O2)2 on the yield and yield attributes of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Experiments were conducted in a factorial design with three replicates. Six wheat varieties namely Abadgar, SKD-1, Anmol-91, Tj-83, Imdad, and Sonalika, were tested for lead acetate tolerance. Four treatment T1= Control (no lead application), T2= 30ppm Pb acetate, T3= 50ppm Pb acetate, and T4= 70ppm Pb acetate were designed. Results indicated that variety SKD-1 produced significantly higher shoot and root length at 30, 50, and 70ppm lead acetate stress than other varieties. An analysis of variance revealed that lead had a considerable impact on yield and yield-related characteristics except for SPAD chlorophyll, the genotype-treatment interaction was significant for all characteristics. The varieties Imdad and SKD-1 produced the highest grains spike-1 (39.6 and 37.0) and grain yields plant-1 (14.33 and 13.0gram) respectively, at the highest stress level and are declared as tolerant cultivars.