JIA-2019-11

2486 Hafiz Ghulam Muhu-Din Ahmed et al. Journal of Integrative Agriculture 2019, 18(11): 2483–2491 of 0.64 and 0.57 under normal and stress conditions, respectively, while the lowest chlorophyll b with the values of 0.46 and 0.39 observed in G91 and G98 under normal and stress conditions respectively as displayed in Fig. 3. Carotenoid contents for all accessions varied significantly from 0.32 to 0.49 mg g –1 under normal conditions and in drought conditions ranged from 0.24 to 0.41 mg g –1 (Table 2). The G11 and G51 had the maximum carotenoids with the values of 0.49 and 0.41 mg g –1 under normal and stress conditions, respectively, while the lowest carotenoids with the values of 0.32 and 0.24 g observed in G77 under normal and stress conditions (Fig. 3). 4. Discussion All the studied characters exhibited fluctuations in mean value under drought condition for most of the genotypes. Mean values for seedling traits in spring wheat were decreased under drought condition. Similar findings have been reported by Khan et al . (2002). Such kind of information was also observed by Dhanda et al . (2004). Those accessions resist in variation of performance for studied characters under drought environments which were considered as drought tolerant. 4.1. Morphological attributes Root length is a significant parameter against drought stress; in general, genotypes with greater root length have the potential for drought resistance (Leishman and Westoby 1994). This was further strengthened by present findings that the genotype G61 under drought stress had the maximum root length considered as drought tolerant genotypes. Using root length parameter, the best tolerant genotypes were G61 followed by G11 and G1, while drought susceptible genotypes were G105 followed by the genotype G77 (Table 3). It has been proposed that progress in breeding wheat for drought tolerance can be expected from selection for increased root length (Dhanda et al . 2004). The influence of root architecture on yield and other desired characters, especially under drought environments, has been widely reported in all major crops (Tuberosa and Salvi 2006; de Dorlodot et al . 2007). Stimulated root growth of wheat strains under drought stress has also been reported by Chachar et al . (2014). Using shoot length parameter, the best tolerant genotypes were G51 followed by G44, while drought G1 G3 G5 G7 G9 G11 G13 G15 G17 G19 G21 G23 G25 G27 G29 G31 G33 G35 G37 G39 G41 G43 G45 G47 G49 G51 G53 G55 G57 G59 G61 G63 G65 G67 G69 G71 G73 G75 G77 G79 G81 G83 G85 G87 G89 G91 G93 G95 G97 G99 G101 G103 G105 RL-N RL-D SL-N SL-D 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 Fig. 1 Performance of wheat seedling traits of 105 genotypes under normal and drought conditions. RL, root length; SL, shoot length; N, normal; D, drought; G, genotypes.