Leaf Area, Relative Water Content and Stay-green Habit of Iranian Landraces (Triticum aestivum L.) under Water Stress in Field Conditions

Water stress is one of the major and challenging abiotic stress that affects the plant mostly at all stages like tillering, booting, anthesis, grain formation and grain filling. The aim of the present study is to investigate the effect of water stress on relative water content, leaf area and stay green habit of Iranian landraces along with commercial relevant checks under irrigated, restricted irrigation and rain-fed conditions. Iranian landraces were selected based on minimum reduction in vigor index as compared to control lines during preliminary screening experiment in the lab in which water stress is induced by Polyethylene glycol (PEG 6000). A field experiment was carried out at the experimental area of the Department of Plant Breeding & Genetics, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab during 2016-2017. The relative water content of Iranian landraces was calculated at the bolting stage according to the turgid weight by applying the equation of relative water content. Leaf area was recorded by leaf area meter and stay-green habit based on a 1-4 visual scale. Analysis of variance revealed interaction among treatment and genotypes was significant (P≤ 0.05) for the leaf area, relative water content, stay green habit at anthesis and 30 days after anthesis. Leaf area, relative water content and stay green habit of Iranian landraces along with commercial checks reduced under water stress conditions. Based on the performance of Iranian landraces under stress conditions, 5 lines IWA 8600397, IWA 8600567, 8606739, IWA 8606786 and IWA 8600753 were considered as water stress tolerant.