Post-anthesis changes in chlorophyll and agronomic traits of bread wheat genotypes

Abstract

In order to assess the variation in SPAD reading for wheat cultivars to know the SPAD-yield relationship for wheat genotypes, changes in post-anthesis chlorophyll and agronomic traits were investigated in 10 bread wheat genotypes under the conditions of Turkey in the 2009-2010 growing season. It was observed that except biomass and chlorophyll-based characters, all agronomic traits were varied significantly due to different genetic makeup of these genotypes. Considering the correlation between yield and harvest index, genotype ‘ZGS 69' was negatively correlated with chlorophyll content, while genotype ‘ZGS 80' was positively correlated with chlorophyll content. Moreover, the most important yield traits such as grain yield, biomass, harvest index, thousand kernel weight, and plant height showed significantly negative correlation with chlorophyll loss. As a noticeable example from the study, although genotype ‘BM1', presented average chlorophyll (SPAD values) at both measuring growth stages, and also achieved the maximum grain yield (6.10 t ha -1) and harvest index (35.2%) capacity with low chlorophyll loss (8.4%). Accordingly, it has been clear that chlorophyll loss will be more effective than basic chlorophyll content on the yield and agronomic characters at any developmental stage of wheat. Consequently, it can be used as a significant physiological selection criteria in wheat breeding. © 2019, ALÖKI Kft., Budapest, Hungary.