Abstract

Drought tolerance is the essential trait that needs to be incorporated in cereal crops, particularly those grown under the rainfed cultivation. Understanding the biophysical basis of drought tolerance will be helpful in developing selection strategies for improving various crop varieties. Therefore, present investigation was aimed to evaluate the drought-induced changes in photosynthetic machinery of drought-tolerant (Harshita: HI-1531) and drought-susceptible (Raj-4037) varieties of wheat (T. aestivum L.). Maximum quantum efficiency of PS II photochemistry (Fv/Fm) parameter was found sensitive to drought stress in Raj-4037 as compare to HI- 1531. Study of other parameters i.e. specific energy fluxes (per QA-reducing PSII reaction center- RC), phenomenological fluxes (per cross section-CS), quantum efficiencies and density of active reaction centers indicates the higher potential of drought tolerance in HI- 1531 variety of T. aestivum.



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