SCREENING OF VARIOUS MORPHO-PHYSIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS IN RECOMBINATION INBRED LINES GROWN UNDER TERMINAL HEAT AND DROUGHT CONDITION

Progress in heat and drought stress tolerance has been limited due to lack of suitable selection criteria. To assess the feasibility of utilizing secondary selection criteria to identify high-yielding hexaploid wheat genotypes, 167 recombinant inbred lines with parents derived from the cross of Seri82 and Babax were evaluated during 2009–2010. The experiment was carried out through a alpha lattice design with two replications in a warm and drought area in Gachsaran agriculture research station located in southwest of Iran. Parental genotypes and recombinant inbred lines showed significant variation and differences. Stronger growth vigor, earliness, more grain filling duration, tall plant height, long peduncle, medium spike length, high 1000 kernel weight and kernel per square meter, low canopy temperature and more chlorophyll content are the best feathers for optimum grain yield performance under heat combined with drought. The correlations of these criteria with yield performance under field condition are remarkable and significant. Heritability of yield components, due to less sensitive to environmental effects was more than grain yield per se and so, breeder emphasis must be put on these components as selection criteria.