Physiological indices of drought tolerance in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) genotypes
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Date
2017
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CCSHAU
Abstract
To study the effect of irrigation levels on barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), twenty barley
genotypes were evaluated under normal (Two irrigations at tillering and anthesis each) and restricted
irrigation conditions (one irrigation at tillering) in concrete drought plots during the 2014-15 and 2015-
16 at the Crop physiology field area, Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agriculture University, Hisar.
The experiments were laid out using RBD with three replications. The results from combined analysis
of variance in both normal and restricted irrigation conditions indicated that there were significant
differences among genotypes with regard to all the traits because of high variation among the
genotypes. Drought stress decreased the phenological traits like days to flag leaf, days to heading, days
to anthesis and days to physiological maturity. The significant reduction was observed in plant height,
dry biomass, leaf area, LAI, LAD, SLA and CGR under restricted irrigation. Under restricted irrigation
leaf water potential, osmotic potential, relative water content, CTD, chlorophyll stability, membrane
stability, photosynthetic rate, transpiration rate, stomatal conductance and Fv/Fm also decreased in
barley genotypes. On the other hand, there was an increase in free proline content, MDA content and
enhancement of antioxidant defense system to scavenge excess ROS molecules to prevent cell from
damage. The main antioxidant enzymes which showed altered activity were superoxide dismutase
catalase, peroxidase and ascorbate peroxidise. Yield and its attributes were also reduced under
restricted irrigation condition. The quality parameters i.e. protein content, husk content and malt yield
were increased while β-Glucan content decreased under restricted irrigation. Finally, based on physiobiochemical
traits, it was revealed that among the tested genotypes, BH 14-05 and BH 10-30 performed
better in terms of physiological, biochemical and yield related traits under restricted irrigation
condition. These results indicated that selecting more tolerant genotypes based on physiological traits
was the way to overcome terminal water stress and can be used for further crop improvement
programmes.
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