Vegetos

Abstract

The wheat genotype, HD 2967 is a popular wheat variety both in North West Plain Zone and North East Plain Zone due to its high yield potential, disease resistance and grain quality parameters. It has been proposed to study the yield attributing traits associated with this genotype. HD 2967 has 98 days of heading, 143 days of maturity, 102 cm plant height, 105 productive tillers per meter along with a 1000-grain weight of 36g. HD 2967 was found superior, for traits like stomatal conductance (gs) and water use efficiency (WUE). The Assimilation rate (A) was also significantly higher than other genotypes. Traits associated with sink strength, like number of tillers, grain filling percentage per spike (91.7%), grain number per spike (59) and grain weight per spike (2.22) were also found at par with other high yielding varieties.

Beside phenological and physiological characterization, anatomical features have also been studied. As anatomical traits are reported as reliable indicators of plants adaptive behavior to various environmental vagaries. Microscopic examination of culm transvers section revealed that HD 2967 has well developed sclerenchyma along with multilayered parenchymatous tissue, containing patches of chlorenchyma in-between. Chlorenchyma is a special type of parenchymatous tissue that contains chloroplast and contributes to enhanced photosynthetic efficiency of plant. HD 2967 also exhibited higher number of vascular bundles (48–50) which could be a major yield contributing trait as the efficiency of conductive tissue relay on lateral vascular bundles for the continuous supply of food and water. Higher value of the ratio between culm diameter to culm cavity provides better lodging resistance potential to HD 2967. Hence, an optimum combination of these physiological and anatomical traits is contributing for wider adaptability and higher yield in HD 2967.