Assessing genetic variation for heat stress tolerance in Indian bread wheat genotypes using morpho-physiological traits and molecular markers

Heat stress greatly limits the productivity of wheat in many regions. Knowledge on the degree of genetic diversity of wheat varieties along with their selective traits will facilitate the development of high yielding, stress-tolerant wheat cultivar. The objective of this study were to determine genetic variation in morpho-physiological traits associated with heat tolerance in 30 diverse wheat genotypes and to examine genetic diversity and relationship among the genotypes varying heat tolerance using molecular markers. Phenotypic data of 15 traits were evaluated for heat tolerance under non-stress and stress conditions for two consecutive years. A positive and significant correlation among cell membrane stability, canopy temperature depression, biomass, susceptibility index and grain yield was shown. Genetic diversity assessed by 41 polymorphic simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers was compared with diversity evaluated for 15 phenotypic traits averaged over stress and non-stress field conditions. The mean polymorphic information content for SSR value was 0.38 with range of 0.12-0.75. Based on morpho-physiological traits and genotypic data, three groups were obtained based on their tolerance (HHT, MHT and LHT) levels. Analysis of molecular variance explained 91.7% of the total variation could be due to variance within the heat tolerance genotypes. Genetic diversity among HHT was higher than LHT genotypes and HHT genotypes were distributed among all cluster implied that genetic basis of heat tolerance in these genotypes was different thereby enabling the wheat breeders to combine these diverse sources of genetic variation to improve heat tolerance in wheat breeding programme.