Some Morphological, Physiological and Biochemical Characterization of Drought Tolerant Wheat (Triticum spp.) Varieties

Abstract

Wheat is an important food for more than 35% of the world population and widely cultivated in wide range of altitudes in Ethiopia. However, recently, it is being affected by water stress throughout the country. Having this thought, considering the study of morphological, physiolog-ical and biochemical parameters ware important to understand the effect of water stress. The study was carried out at Kulumsa Agricultural Research Center (KARC), in lath house using randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications comprising two water regimes of well-water (100% FC) and water stressed (30% FC). Twelve wheat varieties, six from bread wheat Wane, Danka, Kakaba, Ogolcho, Paven-76 and Kingbird and six from durum wheat Donmatia, Mangudo, Utuba, Alemtena, Ude and Mukuye were planted in pots. In this study, a total of seven traits plant height (PH), spike length (SPL), spikes per plant (SPP), chlorophyll content(CC), relative water content (RWC), Proline (PRO) and total soluble sugar (TSS) under water stress were considered. In this study, the results showed that all the seven traits were significantly affected (p<0.05). Nevertheless, under water stress a non-significant difference was observed on the plant height and relative water content among the varieties. The longest and superior SPL (6.9 cm) was recorded from Ogolcho variety under water stress condition. Compared to Ogolcho, the SPL of Mukuye, Ude, Alemtena, Utuba, Mangudo and Wane varieties were found shorter than by 39%, 37%, 36%, 35%, 32% and 29%, respectively. Alemtena and Utuba contained a high amount of proline content (4.78μmol/g and 4.65μmol/g) and total soluble sugar (51.05mg/g and 49.6 mg/g) respectively. In a nutshell, the differences in the synthesis of proline and total soluble sugar with an increase in water stressed among the selected wheat varieties showed that each variety had different ability to cope up with water stresses. This difference in the responses is also likely to be due to the genetic differences among the varieties.