Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 April 2021
Drought tolerance is a highly complex trait and one of the important components of yield stability in wheat. An experiment was therefore conducted to study the drought tolerance status of 14 high-yielding wheat varieties based on morphological characteristics under a randomized complete block design following factorial arrangement with three replications. Variety × Treatment × Year interactions of wheat genotypes were studied for various morphological traits under normal and drought stress conditions for 2 years in plants grown in pots. Significant differences were observed among the 14 varieties of wheat. Sutlej-86 was found to be highly affected by drought, with maximum reductions in plant height, spike length and number of spikelets/spike. The variety with the maximum tolerance to drought was Bahawalpur-97; this variety also had the lowest reductions in the number of fertile tillers/plant, the number of spikelets/spike, spike weight, the number of grains/spike, 1000-grain weight, grain yield/spike, total biomass and stress susceptibility and tolerance indices. Stronger correlations among the studied attributes under drought stress over normal conditions further highlighted drought stress adversities. The studied traits are thus recognized as drought tolerance indicators for varietal selection, and varieties showing less reduction under drought could be used as a standard check in breeding programmes to identify lineages with drought tolerance and could be recommended for drought-stressed areas.