Study of changes in Photosyntheic rate, chlorophyll content, proline content and membrane stability in Indian wheat cultivars under drought stress

The study reveals that photosynthetic rate, chlorophyll content, proline accumulation and membrane stability index of Indian wheat cultivars gets affected when grown under PEG-induced drought conditions. The seeds of 20 wheat cultivars were treated with 10%, 20% and 30% PEG solution for 48 hours and were sown in field. The physiological parameters i.e. photosynthetic rate and chlorophyll content were measured at anthesis stage and 15 days after anthesis along with this biochemical parameters i.e. proline content and membrane stability index were also measured. It was observed in the present study that osmotic stress significantly reduced the chlorophyll content and photosynthetic rate of flag leaf in wheat germplasm. Among all the tested genotypes HD2733 and K9107 performed better under both irrigated and drought conditions, whereas the DBW16 and DBW17 were seems to be the sensitive genotypes under drought environment. The germplasm HD2733 shows higher value of proline content, whereas wheat genotypes exhibited high variability for MSI values. After increasing the stress level the proline accumulation is recorded to be increases in these genotypes.