Evaluation of Morphological Traits Diversity in Synthetic Hexaploid Wheat

Genetic variation is primary requirment of any breeding program which establishes from the natural evolution and warrants sustainable production of plants under variable environmental conditions. One of the successful methods to introgress desirable agronomic genes from bread wheat ancestors to wheat is producing synthetic hexaploid wheat. The objective of presents study is to assess genetic diversity of synthetic hexaploid wheats using morphological traits. Ninty-nine synthetic hexaploid wheats were evaluated under field conditions. The results indicated a significant variation in the synthetic-hexaploid wheat genotypes. Grain yield per plant had the highest coefficient of variation and days to maturity had the lowest coefficient of variation. Polymorphism was observed for traits such as flag leaf color, glume color, auricle color, hairy auricle, hairy node and hairy glume. There was a positive and significant correlation between plant height and glume length, also between glume length and grain yield per plant. Grain yield per plant and yield components were also correlated significantly. Correlations between phonological traits such as days to heading and days to pollination (r=0.42**( as well as between days to maturity and days to pollination (r=0.28**) were positive and significant. The results of stepwise regression indicated that number of grain per spike, number of spikes per plant and 1000 grains weight could explained 47% of variation of grain yield per plant.