Pages: 13-23

Abstract

Heat stress remains a major environmental factor which decreases the yield and productivity of most cereals growing worldwide. The research work was performed to analyze the influence of heat stress on the performance of morpho-physiological characteristics of Triticum aestivum genotypes at NARC Islamabad, Pakistan during 2014 - 2015. Various traits of wheat were evaluated by using complete randomize design with triplicates. Analysis of variance reveals adverse influence of heat stress on observed traits of selected genotypes. The result indicates that extreme temperature causes reduction to grain yield, yield per plant. All genotypes responded different against heat stress as compared to optimum temperature. Among all varieties, genotypes 1067, 1123, 1124, 1137, 1154, 1159 and 1163 confirmed most tolerable to heat stress regarding seeds yield per plant, proline content, membrane stability index and total chlorophyll contents. It is suggested that heat stress tolerant varieties should be used in plant breeding programs in the development of different wheat varieties having heat stress tolerance at different stages of plant growth and further research studies should be investigated for the progress of potential heat acceptable genotypes in high temperature regimes.