Genetic Analysis of Spring Wheat Germplasmagainst Water Deficit Conditions

Spring wheat, also known as bread wheat, is greatly affected by drought, which is one of the most significant abiotic variables, and the lack of useful selection criteria restricts the breeding of resistant genotypes.This investigation aimed to evaluate 8 lines and 3 testers, along with their 24 hybrid crosses, for yield-related indices.The combining ability and gene action were also estimated using line tester analysis.Significant differences were found in the line tester analysis, demonstrating the highly significant variations of studied attributes among lines (L), testers (T), L T, and parents (P) vs. crosses (C) under both stressed and non-stressed conditions, except the tester revealed a non-significant difference for only plant height in the non-stressed condition.Out of 8 lines and 3 testers, L3 (Pasban-90) and T2 (Lasani-2008) proved to be good general combiners in non-stressed conditions, while in stressed water deficit conditions, L1 (Aas-11), L3 (Pasban-90), L4 (Chakwal-97), L6 (FSD-08), T2 (Lasani-2008), and T3 (Gomal-2008) exhibited good general combining ability.The hybrid crosses between L7 T3 (Shahkar-13 Gomal-2008) and L3 T2 (Pasban-90 Lasani-2008) demonstrated good specific combining ability (SCA) under both studied environments.The predominant non-additive type of gene action observed for all of the studied indices suggests the development of potential hybrids for drought tolerance.