Synthetic hexaploid wheat as a source of variation for the traits specific to conservation agriculture

Abstract

Breeding wheat for a better root system and compatibility under conservation agriculture (CA) practices have the potential to increase and sustain grain yield production under changing climate scenarios. Due to the practical challenges in evaluating the “hidden half” of crop plants under field conditions, screening of genotypes under hydroponic environments will help to get around these difficulties. The present study used hydroponic growing conditions to analyze the root traits of 55 Synthetic Hexaploid Wheat (SHW) genotypes and 19 bread wheat cultivars. These cultivars are developed over the past 100 years for India’s North Western Plain Zone. For root architectural traits, a substantial diversity was found. Due to the positive correlation with dry root weight, root length (RLsc and RLrs), root volume, root surface area, average diameter, and dry shoot weight can be effectively combined. Further analysis of a subset of 34 SHW lines revealed that SHW lines like SYN2, SYN28, and SYN13 have greater root lengths, root volumes, root surface area, and number of root tips when compared to mega varieties like PBW 343, HD 2967, HD 3086, and other popular varieties. Many SHW lines displayed thicker and longer coleoptiles than released varieties. In CA, coleoptile thickness is equally important as coleoptile length because it helps the crop emerge well from the high residue load. The findings of this study clearly indicate that useful genetic variation for the traits important for CA exists in synthetic wheat and should be explored for bread wheat improvement.