Selection for Earliness in Two Wheat Populations under Toshka Conditions

Abstract

Drought is a significant constraint for defecting yield and output potential as growth and productivity of plants are adversely affected by water stress which leads to heavy yield losses. A good drought tolerant wheat line should have the ability to withstand in water deficit conditions or have the ability to escape from it. The present work aimed to study the effect of two cycles of pedigree selection for earliness in two segregating populations of wheat under water stress, during 2015/16 and 2016/17 season at Toshka Station, Desert Research Center, Aswan, Egypt. The water treatments were 100 and 67% of the irrigation requirements of wheat in Toshka as normal and drought condition, respectively. The selected family No. 12 was the earlier family and recorded 55.33 and 48.33 days under normal and drought stress, respectively. Moreover, family No. 10 was the best family that showed high grain yield under both water irrigations in Pop.1. Drought stress led to reduce grain yield/plant (GYPP) by 35.3% in best family. These families could be considered as tolerant to drought stress and could be used in breeding program for drought tolerance and earliness. In Pop.2, family No. 6 was the best selected one in (GYPP, BYPP, GYPS, NGPS and 100-GW) under normal conditions, while the family No. 7 was the best one for days to heading under normal and drought stress conditions. The performance of the selected families under normal and/or drought stress conditions may determine the goals and attitudes of the selection program.