Transgenerational Responses Of Spring Wheat Seedlings Under Drought Stress Using A Phenotyping Conveyor System

Wheat is known to be one of the most important food crops in the world.It is a staple food for many families across the world.In the face of lack of water availability,drought has been the single most significant threat to global wheat production.The ever-increasing need for food for the increasingly rising population is projected to intensify the consequences of water limitation further.Drought during the vegetative growth of wheat slows plant development and growth,resulting in smaller leaves and lower production of dry matter:whereas drought during the reproductive process hinders flower production and grain filling.It is,therefore,essential to improve the resistance of drought in wheat for sustainable yield growth under drought stress.Therefore,an experiment was carried out on the transgenerational growth and responses of different rows of spring wheat under drought stress using Pheno-conveyor.Two cultivars of spring wheat from Xinjiang were used for this study.Different rows of Xinchun 22 and Xinchun 39 of the TR8 treatment were used for this study.The descriptive section of the results observed a trend of significant mean values of the used parameters before drought stress was introduced.The morphological attributes contributed to a trend that observed a quick increase in plant growth through width,height and surface area during the initial growth phases to a reduced one at harvest.Lack of water makes the plant to wither.However,after the introduction of the drought stress,the final mean values among the genotypes were statistically insignificant,indicating no differences.After 45DAS,Xinchun 22 reported that R2（71.81cm）,R3（67.34cm）and R4（62.13cm）showed significant mean differences in the control level.However,in the drought level,only R2（62.83cm）observed significant mean difference.Genotype Xinchun 39 indicated that R3（66.35cm）and R4（63.28cm）were significantly different in their mean values in the control level.Comparatively,R1（56.55cm）,R3（63.05cm）and R4（59.76cm）observed significant mean differences among the rows.Further results indicated that the drought stress leads to a reduced mean value of the variable fluorescence over fluorescence saturation（Fv/Fm）after 45 days of sowing.The results indicated that genotype XC39 expressed significant differences in the mean value in two rows.The measurement of Fv/Fm represented the maximum photochemical efficiency that further illustrated the effects of drought stress on the cumulative photo-oxidative damage.Physiological attributions of the spring wheat genotype can result in a more reliable control of water-stress duration and severity at the growth stages.In order to study the effect of drought stress on germination and early seedling growth of different rows of Xinchun 39 using three concentrations of PEG 6000（0,5%and 15%）was used for this study.An experiment was conducted and crafted using a completely randomized method of five replicates.After the 10th day of germination,shoot length,root length,seedling length,seedling fresh weight,germination percentage,germination rate and seed vigour of the seed was calculated.This study provides important information on traits associated with spring wheat drought tolerance at the germination stage.Also,it provides evidence of the possibility of using this screening approach to identify early-growing spring wheat germplasm tolerant to drought.While field studies in water-deficient conditions are warranted in order to determine the validity of evidence from in vitro assays,it is proposed that this method is of great benefit for the exploration of genetic heterogeneity for traits correlated with drought tolerance to be exploited in relative breeding programs.