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Drought is the major abiotic limiting factors for wheat crop production. This study aimed to evaluate the wheat germplasm for drought tolerance and the association of seedling parameters. An experiment was conducted in wire house, Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan. Seventy five genotypes were sown under normal (control) and water stress conditions. Data were collected for shoot length, root length, root-shoot ratio, fresh weight, dry weight and leaf water contents of seedlings. On the basis of these parameters cluster analysis was done for grouping of genotypes. Under normal conditions 12 clusters were formed while in water stress conditions genotypes were grouped into 11 clusters. Formation of large number of clusters indicates huge variation among the genotypes. Results revealed that all the studied parameters differed significantly (P < 0.05) among all genotypes. Under water stress conditions, performance of shoot length, root length, root-shoot ratio, fresh weight, dry weight and leaf water contents were suppressed by 21, 6, 33, 39, 8 and 16% respectively as compared to normal conditions. Most of the parameters studied were significantly correlated among themselves. Consequently, adequate attention should be given to the negatively correlated seedling parameters during selection.

Key words: Correlation, seedling, stress, wheat germplasm.

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Citation: Ul-Allah S, Khan AS, Saeed MF, Ashfaq W, Iqbal M, Shah GM, Naeem M, Rashid MAR (2014). Genetic variability and correlation studies for seedling traits of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) genotypes under normal and water stress conditions. J. Agric. Crop Res. 2(9): 173-180.