Variability in Ethiopian Durum Wheat under Rainfed Environment Subjected to Drought at Anthesis

Sixty-four durum wheat genotypes comprised of different sources of origin were field evaluated in a simple lattice design with two replications at Debre-Zeit sandy soil environment during the 2016 main season. The objective was to assess the extent of genetic variability for durum wheat genotypes under rain-fed terminal moisture stress using fifteen agronomic and yield related traits. There were wide ranges of variation for some of traits studied. Analysis of variance also revealed that there were significant variations among durum wheat genotypes for eight out of 15 traits studied, suggesting the possibility of improving durum wheat for these traits. Terminal drought had highly significant effect on grain yield per plot, aboveground biomass, spike length, days to heading and grain filling. Grain yield per plot and straw yield showed the highest phenotypic coefficients of variations and genetic advance, whereas days to maturity and harvest index had the lowest values, respectively. Across traits, the broad sense heritability was lowest (12 %) for harvest index and highest for days to heading (91%) followed by grain filling period (73%). None of the traits had high GCV values indicating that the effect of drought was severe for trait expressions. The existence of high heritability for days to heading and grain filling period along with low genetic advance of 5.15 and 3.01 suggested that the variation observed may not indicate the expression of additive gene action. Five principal components (PCs) with eigenvalue between 1.1 and 3.73 explained a cumulative of about 78.6% of the total phenotypic variability observed among the durum wheat genotypes. Cluster analysis also classified the 64 durum wheat genotypes into five groups. The genotypes found in to five clusters ranged from seven to 15. The genotypes maintained under different groups had specific characters and it may give desirable genetic recombinants in developing drought tolerant varieties. Overall, the present study revealed that there is sufficient variability existed in durum wheat genotypes tested under terminal drought environment.

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Author Zemede Alemayehu, Mekbib Firew, Assefa Kebebew and Zewdie Bishaw
Maintainer EIAR
Last Updated December 30, 2023, 20:26 (UTC)
Created March 18, 2023, 12:50 (UTC)
contributor Getachew, Meron
creator Zemede Alemayehu, Mekbib Firew, Assefa Kebebew and Zewdie Bishaw
date 2023-01-11T00:00:00
harvest_object_id cb104eaf-5134-4444-958e-e7e0ff77b4f4
harvest_source_id b7467cdf-8775-49cd-b162-b68283e0d13b
harvest_source_title EIAR Open Research Data
identifier https://doi.org/10.20372/eiar-rdm/G0WLZT
metadata_modified 2023-01-11T07:00:01