Study on physiological characteristics of bread wheat genotypes response to water stress after anthesis and zinc foliar application

Subject Areas : Journal of Plant Ecophysiology

Davood Afiuni ¹ , غلامعباس اکبری ² , ایرج اله دادی ³ , G. Najafian ⁴ , L. Safaei ⁵

1 - دانشجوی دکترای زراعت پردیس ابوریحان دانشگاه تهران و عضو هیئت علمی مرکز تحقیقات کشاورزی و منابع طبیعی استان اصفهان
2 - دانشیار گروه علوم زراعی و اصلاح نباتات، پردیس ابوریحان، دانشگاه تهران
3 - دانشیار گروه علوم زراعی و اصلاح نباتات، پردیس ابوریحان، دانشگاه تهران
4 - استاد موسسه تحقیقات اصلاح و تهیه نهال و بذر(کرج)
5 - عضو هیات علمی مرکز تحقیقات کشاورزی و منابع طبیعی اصفهان

Received: 2015-05-06 Accepted : 2015-08-05 Published : 2017-02-19

Keywords: Correlation, Proline, flag leaf, Grain yield,

Abstract :

In many regions, drought stress occurs at the terminal stages of wheat growth. Identifying the physiological responses of plant can help in produce tolerant varieties. In a two years study in Isfahan, effect of three treatments included normal irrigation, drought stress after anthesis, and drought stress after anthesis with two times zinc foliar application at vegetative growth on 11 wheat genotypes were studied as RCBD with split- plot arrangement and three replications. RWC, RWL, ELWR and IWC were measured on flag leaf at 3 stages including anthesis and one and two weeks after anthesis. Proline, soluble proteins and grain yield also were measured. Comparing normal condition, in drought treatment, RWC, RWL and IWC decreased and ELWR increased at both one and two weeks after anthesis. Drought stress also decreased soluble protein and grain yield and increased proline. Zinc foliar application mitigated negative impacts of drought stress, so that grain yield, RWC (at one and two weeks after anthesis), and IWC (at two week after anthesis) were higher in drought + zinc than drought without zinc. There were significant differences among genotypes for all traits. Under drought stress, there were positive significant correlations between grain yield with soluble proteins, RWC (at one and two weeks after anthesis) and ELWR (at anthesis), indicating the capability of these traits as selection criteria for improvement of terminal drought tolerant wheat varieties.