Differential effects of high-temperature stress on the morpho-physiological traits of different Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) genotypes

High-temperature stress (HTS) is one of the significant constraints in crop production under climate change. The temperature rises from 32°C during the wheat reproductive and grain-filling stage, leading to yield penalties. In the present investigation, ten different wheat genotypes were evaluated at three different times of the same cropping year to assess the effect of HTS on developmental patterns and yield. The physiological characterization assessed chlorophyll content (CC) and cell membrane stability (CMS). However, the Canopy temperature depression (CTD) was measured at the three development stages, pre-anthesis, anthesis and post-anthesis, under HTS conditions to identify promising genotypes for developing new breeding lines. Simultaneously the morphological characterization viz. days to 50 % heading (HD), days to 50 % flowering (FD), plant height (PH), flag leaf length (FLL), flag leaf width (FLW), spike length (SL), spike numbers (SN), spike weight (SW), grain number per spike (GN/S), grain weight (GW), test grain weight (TGW) and grain yield per plot (GY/P) were analyzed to correlate the yield under HTS. Statistical analysis was done using a factorial ANOVA in all the genotypes and K910-30 showed better responses with CC, CMS and TGW values under HTS conditions. Simultaneously, the assessment of morphological traits revealed that the K910-30 genotype performed better than other genotypes. The results of the present investigation will be helpful in future studies dealing with improved high-temperature stress tolerance in wheat. They might be beneficial for identifying wheat genotypes that can withstand high-temperature stress.