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Characterization of stress-induced changes in morphological, physiological and biochemical properties of Indian bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) under deficit irrigation

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Abstract

Abiotic stresses in wheat, particularly drought (DR), hamper wheat production and causes up to 86% yield losses. Therefore, developing stress-tolerant genotypes is a major challenge in wheat breeding. In this study, we evaluated 72 diverse wheat genotypes for DR tolerance over two consecutive years, examining 12 morpho-physiological traits under irrigated (IR) and DR conditions. Under DR, grain yield (GY) was significantly associated with biomass and phenological traits. The principal component analysis accounted for 82.79% and 80.08% of the overall variation during IR and DR stress conditions, respectively. Based on GY component traits and drought susceptible index, two tolerant (IC36761A and IC128335) and two susceptible (IC138852 and IC335732) genotypes were selected for physio-biochemical analysis. In these genotypes, the membrane stability index (MSI) ranged from 57 to 74% and 35 to 64% under IR and DR conditions. Genotype IC128335 showed 78.10% relative water content (RWC), 2.97 mg/g tannin, and 3.67 mg/g fresh weight reducing sugar (RS) content under DR conditions. Abscisic acid (ABA) content ranged from 0.81 to 4.03 ppm/g dry weight (DW) and 0.92–4.23 ppm/g DW under IR and DR stress conditions, respectively. There was a significant genotype × environment interaction observed for the physio-biochemical traits. The genotypes IC36761A and IC128335 suffered less reduction in MSI and RWC. RS and flavonoid content significantly increased in all four genotypes, but the tannin and ABA levels increased especially in IC128335 and IC36761A under DR conditions. The physio-biochemical findings support the DR tolerance of genotypes IC128335 and IC36761A, indicating their potential for inclusion in breeding programs aimed at enhancing DR tolerance in bread wheat.

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Abbreviations

ABA:

Abscisic acid

BM:

Biomass

DA:

Days to anthesis

DH:

Days to heading

DM:

Days to maturity

DR:

Drought

DSI:

Drought susceptibility index

DW:

Dry weight

FW:

Fresh weight

GFD:

Grain filling duration

GN:

Grain number/spike

GW:

Grain weight/spike

GY:

Grain yield

HI:

Harvest index

HPLC:

High-performance liquid chromatography

IR:

Irrigated

MSI:

Membrane stability index

PCA:

Principal component analysis

PHT:

Plant height

PTL:

Productive tillers

RE:

Rutin equivalent

ROS:

Reactive oxygen species

RS:

Reducing sugar

RWC:

Relative water content

TGW:

Thousand grain weight

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the Director, ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (ICAR-NBPGR) New Delhi, for the facilities and support provided to carry out the research work. We sincerely acknowledge the Director, ICAR-Indian Institute of Wheat, and Barley Research (ICAR-IIWBR) Karnal-Haryana, for providing wheat germplasm and support in field experiments.

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Authors did not received any funding.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Genomic Resources, ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, NBPGR, Pusa Campus, New Delhi, 110 012, India

    Deepali Upadhyay, Jyoti Kumari & Sundeep Kumar

  2. ICAR-Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute, New Delhi, 110 012, India

    Neeraj Budhlakoti & D. C. Mishra

  3. Department of Biotechnology and University Center for Research and Development, Chandigarh University, Mohali, Punjab, 140413, India

    Vijay Gahlaut

  4. Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, 201 313, India

    Deepali Upadhyay & Nidhee Chaudhary

  5. ICAR-National Institute of Plant Biotechnology, New Delhi, 110 012, India

    Jasdeep Chatrath Padaria

  6. ICAR-Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research, Karnal, Haryana, 132 001, India

    Sindhu Sareen

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  1. Deepali Upadhyay
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  2. Neeraj Budhlakoti
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  3. D. C. Mishra
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  4. Jyoti Kumari
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  7. Jasdeep Chatrath Padaria
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  8. Sindhu Sareen
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  9. Sundeep Kumar
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Contributions

Conceptualization, SK, DU, and NC; methodology, SS, SK and JCP; experiments and investigation carried out, DU; data analysis, SK, SS, JCP, NB, DCM, VG, DU and JK; writing, original draft preparation, DU; writing, review, and editing, DU, SK, SS, JK, JCP, DCM, VG, NB and NC; supervision, SK, SS, JK, JCP, DCM, NB and NC. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript and agreed to publish it.

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Correspondence to Sindhu Sareen or Sundeep Kumar.

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Upadhyay, D., Budhlakoti, N., Mishra, D.C. et al. Characterization of stress-induced changes in morphological, physiological and biochemical properties of Indian bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) under deficit irrigation. Genet Resour Crop Evol 70, 2353–2366 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-023-01693-7

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