Screening of Wheat (Triticum Aestivum L.) Genotypes for Drought Tolerance through Estimation of Chlorophyll and Proline Contents
Keywords:
Drought , Stress, Irrigation, Genotypes, Chlorophyll, ProlineAbstract
Wheat (Triticum aestivum L) is a staple food cereal crop for the majority of the global population. Water scarcity is a major challenge to wheat productivity under changing climate conditions, especially in arid and semi-arid regions. During recent years, different agronomic, physiological, and molecular approaches have been used to overcome the problems related to drought stress. The adverse effects of single or multiple environmental stresses, such as drought, high and low temperatures, and nutrient deficiencies on plant growth and yield have become severe in recent years due to increased global climate change and the occurrence of extreme weather events. This study was designed to investigate the screening of wheat genotypes under drought and irrigated conditions and to identify the best-performing genotypes under both conditions. Five different genotypes were used in two factors and three replications at Gomal University, Dera Ismail Khan, and investigated for yield and drought tolerance under irrigated and drought conditions by the estimation of chlorophyll and proline contents. Data collected for yield/pot (g) and drought tolerance by estimating chlorophyll and proline contents was subjected to Statistix 8.1 software at the 5% probability level. Results revealed significant differences (P ≤ 0.01) among genotypes for chlorophyll and proline contents, and yield/pot. Under both irrigated and drought treatments, AZRC Dera exhibited the highest chlorophyll content value (46.33 and 45.11, respectively), followed by RK-2022 (43.32 and 41.89, respectively). Similarly, under drought stress conditions, RK-2022 (20.21) and AZRC Dera (18.86) recorded the accumulation of the highest proline content, followed by Wadan (18.21). Moreover, the irrigation treatments and stressed plants varied the grain yield from 0.72 to 0.49 and 0.52 to 0.28 grams/plot, respectively. AZRC Dera and RK-2022 exhibited a higher yield/plot (g) under both irrigated (0.72g and 0.65g, respectively) and drought (0.52g and 0.48g, respectively) conditions. Considering yield and drought-responsive high chlorophyll and proline contents, AZRC Dera and RK-2022 showed greater drought tolerance and revealed potential to grow under water deficit conditions in comparison to other cultivars.
References
Ahad A, Jan SU, Rafque K, Zafar S, Ahmad MA, Abbas F, Gul A. 11 Climate Change and Cereal Modeling. Cereal Crops: Genetic Resources and Breeding Techniques. 2023 Jun 21:239.
Ahmad A, Aslam Z, Javed T, Hussain S, Raza A, Shabbir R, Mora-Poblete F, Saeed T, Zulfiqar F, Ali MM, Nawaz M. Screening of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) genotypes for drought tolerance through agronomic and physiological response. Agronomy. 2022 Jan 23;12(2):287.
Ahmed JU, Hassan MA. Evaluation of seedling proline content of wheat genotypes in relation to heat tolerance. Bangladesh Journal of Botany. 2011;40(1):17-22.
Altendorf K, Booth IR, Gralla JA, Greie JC, Rosenthal AZ, Wood JM. Osmotic stress. EcoSal Plus. 2009 Dec 31;3(2):10-128.
Ashraf MF, Foolad MR. Roles of glycine betaine and proline in improving plant abiotic stress resistance. Environmental and experimental botany. 2007 Mar 1;59(2):206-16.
Dhakal A. Effect of drought stress and management in wheat—A review. Food Agribus. Manag. 2021;2(2):62-6.
Hamarash H, Hamad R, Rasul A. Meteorological drought in semi-arid regions: A case study of Iran. Journal of Arid Land. 2022 Nov;14(11):1212-33.
Hayat S, Hayat Q, Alyemeni MN, Wani AS, Pichtel J, Ahmad A. Role of proline under changing environments: a review. Plant signaling & behavior. 2012 Nov 1;7(11):1456-66.
Hosseinifard M, Stefaniak S, Ghorbani Javid M, Soltani E, Wojtyla Ł, Garnczarska M. Contribution of exogenous proline to abiotic stresses tolerance in plants: A review. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 2022 May 6;23(9):5186.
Khayatnezhad M, Zaefizadeh M, Eimani A. Selection of useful index for drought stress tolerance in durum wheat genotypes. Middle East J. Sci. Res. 2011 Dec 14;9:189-94.
Liang X, Zhang L, Natarajan SK, Becker DF. Proline mechanisms of stress survival. Antioxidants & redox signaling. 2013 Sep 20;19(9):998-1011.
Mesterházy Á, Oláh J, Popp J. Losses in the grain supply chain: Causes and solutions. Sustainability. 2020 Mar 17;12(6):2342.
Mwadzingeni L, Shimelis H, Tesfay S, Tsilo TJ. Screening of bread wheat genotypes for drought tolerance using phenotypic and proline analyses. Frontiers in Plant Science. 2016 Aug 25;7:1276.
Niinemets U. Photosynthesis and resource distribution through plant canopies. Plant, cell & environment. 2007 Sep;30(9):1052-71.
Pradhan GP, Prasad PV, Fritz AK, Kirkham MB, Gill BS. Response of Aegilops species to drought stress during reproductive stages of development. Functional Plant Biology. 2011 Dec 5;39(1):51-9.
Sarker AM, Rahman MS, Paul NK. Effect of soil moisture on relative leaf water content, chlorophyll, proline, and sugar accumulation in wheat. Journal of Agronomy and Crop Science. 1999 Nov;183(4):225-9.
Slama I, Abdelly C, Bouchereau A, Flowers T, Savouré A. Diversity, distribution and roles of osmoprotective compounds accumulated in halophytes under abiotic stress. Annals of botany. 2015 Feb 1;115(3):433-47.
Additional Files
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 International Journal of Agriculture Innovations and Cutting-Edge Research (HEC Recognised)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
15162394 Canada Inc., ON, Canada