The effect of cultivar on the variation of spring wheat grain quality under drought conditions

Wheat is an important source of staple food and has a major role at human nutrition and it is essential to know the relationships between yield and its components in wheat breeding programs. In the examined characteristics, positive and the expression significant correlation were found statistically between the flag leaf area, germination in mannitol, survival after desiccation and number of tillers per plant with grain yield. Negative and significant relationships were determined statistically between the plant height, water loss of excised leaves, root length and root depth with grain yield. Path coefficient revealed that number of tillers per plant (9.166) and root depth (0.2675) had the highest positive direct effects on grain yield. In addition water loss of excised leaves (-9.057) and survival after desiccation (-0.449) have highest negative direct effect on grain yield. The improvement in grain yield will be efficient if the selection is based on the number of tillers per plant, root depth and flag leaf area under drought conditions. Comparatively high genetic variability was found in grain yield, flag leaf area and tillers per plant. Number of tillers per plant had direct and marked effect and majority of the traits affected grain yield through it.