Agriculture Science Developments, 3(2) February 2014, Pages: 173-174

TI Journals
ISSN
2306-7527

Agriculture Science Developments

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Evaluation of Advanced Bread Wheat Cultivars and Lines for

Evaluation of Resistance to Cold
Amir Gharib Eshghi *1, Vahid Mollasadeghi 2, Gholamreza Khalilzadeh 3
1
2
3

Agriculture & Natural Resources Research Center of Zanjan Province, Iran.

Department of Agriculture, Science and Research branch, Islamic Azad University, Ardabil, Iran.
Agriculture & Natural Resources Research Center of Oromiye Province, Iran.

AR TIC LE INF O

AB S TR AC T

Keywords:

In order to evaluate the resistance of different bread wheat genotypes for final selection of coldresistant lines, an experiment was conducted with the presence of 20 bread wheat genotypes in
Ardebil region, as fall cultivation and under the winter cold in rainfed conditions. The genotypes
were evaluated using different traits like measuring leaf relative water content (LRWC), crown
relative water content (CRWC), stability rate of cytoplasmic membraneand cytoplasmic membrane
damage (MD) percentage and chlorophyll content. Among the other traits that were used in
evaluating the rate of resistance to cold in this experiment, one could refer to green percentage, the
number of days to heading, the number of days to flowering, the number of days to anthesis, the
number of days to maturity, grain filling period, and morphological traits like the total number of
tillers, the number of fertile tillers, the plant length, the spike length, the peduncle length, number
of spikes per square meter, number of grains per spike, weight of grains per spike. The results
showed that there is no significant meaning statistically between genotypes in terms of LRWC,
CRWC, cytoplasmic membrane stability, MD percentage, green percentage, grain filling period in
the spike. But there is a significant relationship in terms of chlorophyll content, leaf color, the
number of days to heading, flowering, anthesis, maturity, the plant length, the total number of
tillers, number of fertile tillers, harvest index, peduncle length, spike length number of grains per
spike, number of clusters per square meter and weight of a thousand grains. In this experiment,
resistant lines with higher chlorophyll stability, lower cytoplasmic MD and higher crown water
content, did not necessarily have higher performance. Thus, cold-resistant gene could be found
more in native genotypes of cold regions and also in non-winter cultivars, which could be used in
the block crossing program for producing cold-resistant cultivars.

bread wheat
cold-resistant
physiologic traits
morphological traits

2014 Agric. sci. dev. All rights reserved for TI Journals.

Introduction
Bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is undoubtedly the most important crop and plays a main part among the top dozen crops produced as
food sources in a wide expanse on the earth and may have been an axis for the development of agriculture (Emam, 2009). Wheat is
produced in a vast range of climatic conditions and geographical areas and due to being highly adaptable to various environmental and
climatic conditions; it dominates more arable land than any other plant species and is considered as staple food for great part of the worlds
ever-increasing population (Shahryari et al., 2011). Apart from being important commercially, it is also an increasingly functional tool in
political and international relations all around the world. Although Iran boasts nearly 1% of world population, it consumes roughly 2.5% of
wheat produced worldwide. Wheat is a strategic good like energy and considered one of the most important indices for agriculture (Akbari
et al., 2010 and Shahryari et al., 2011).
The cold resistance degree is not a constant quantity, but it can change in many plants due to natural or artificial conditions. To the total
physiologic and morphological variations that are caused by exposure to stress, and aims at increasing resistance, is called the hardening
process and is known by terms like "hardening" or "cold hardening" or "cold acclimation" ( Levitt, 1956; Blum, 1988 and Lessani, 1997).
Resistance to cold and freezing is a complex and quantitative trait that is controlled by many genes (polygenic inheritance). Fuller et al.
have reported in 1977 that the low temperature resistance trait which is controlled by genes with additive effects, in case there is no
sufficient low temperature in the environment and the cold stress is low, is affected by genes with dominant effects, but when the
environment temperature is so low and the cold stress is intensified, these genes are affected by recessive genes and are justified (Fowler et
al., 1997). Thus, according to Fuller, using a wrong methodology will cause misleading results. The study of the combined effects of
osmotic adjustment traits, RWC, membrane status of ice fragments and the reaction of the fungi which is an artificial model, can't be
explained with a genetic model. Thus, with a simple farm-level study, all aspects of winter resistance quantitative inheritance can't be
explained. In other words, the genetic control of freezing resistance components is very complex and the data in this case are very
incomplete (Blum, 1988). In general, the freezing temperature in the interpretation of genetic diversity is highly important (Auld et al.,
1983). Freezing resistance is mainly controlled by non-additive effects of genes. The freezing resistance in cereals is under the conditions
apparently controlled by additive gene action (Parodi et al., 1983, Sutka, 1981) and the temperature degree used in this work affects the
* Corresponding author.
Email address: dara.eshghi@gmail.com

Amir Gharib Eshghi et al.

174

Agricult ure Sci ence Developments , 3(2) February 2014

type and amount of the observed genetic Variance. Pribani Shinkio who studied the fall wheat genotypes in terms of cold resistance and
tolerance of hard winter conditions in central areas of Volga River, achieved cultivars with high degrees of cold resistance. He observed in
the studies during the years 1981-93 that some traits show about 92.6 % due to yearly distribution change; thus, he recommended that to
improve resistance to cold, choosing and selection of desirable traits must happen in accordance to different environmental conditions
(Prianishiniko, 1996).

Materials and Methods

An experiment was conducted in Ardebil region, with the presence of 20 genotypes of bread wheat as fall cultivation and in the winter cold
under rainfed conditions. The genotypes were evaluated using traits like measuring different traits like LRWC, CRWC, the stability rate of
cytoplasmic membrane and cytoplasmic MD percentage. To determine the amount of CRWC by Fowler's method, in the 7-8 leaf stage, the
plant crowns were separated and were weighted by the exact balance with a sensitivity of 0.001 g, then were dried for 48 hours at the 800 C
in autoclave, then the weight of the scales was weighted with the aforementioned balance and was eventually calculated using Fowler's
proposed formula.

Also, to measure the cytoplasmic membrane stability, the plant leaves in two 7-8 leaf stages and the flag leaf emergence stage, were
experimented. At each stage of each cultivar in each replication, 5 leaves were randomly selected apiece with a diameter of 3.5 mm was
prepared and placed in a 10 cc distilled water ( at laboratory room temperature), and eventually the cytoplasmic membrane stability in
samples was measured after 20 hours by electrical conductivity gauge. Among other traits to be evaluated, one could refer to the green
percentage, number of days to heading, number of days to flowering, number of days to anthesis, number of days to maturity, grain filling
period and among morphological traits one could refer to the total number of tillers, number of fertile tillers, plant length, spike length,
peduncle length, number of spikes per square meter, number of grains per spike, and weight of grain per spike.

Results and Discussion

The results of Variance analysis traits indicated that there is no significant difference between genotypes in terms of LRWC, CRWC,
cytoplasmic membrane stability, cytoplasmic MD percentage, green percentage, grain filling period and the grain weight in the main spike.
But there is a significant relationship in terms of chlorophyll content, leaf color, the number of days to heading, number of days to
flowering, number of days to anthesis, number of days to maturity, the total number of tillers, number of fertile tillers, plant length,
peduncle length, harvest index, spike length, number of grains per spike, number of clusters per square meter and weight of a thousand
grains. Among morphological traits, one could refer to spike per square meter, number of grains per spike, and the weight of grain per
spike. The results showed that statistically there is no significant difference between genotypes in terms of LRWC, CRWC, cytoplasmic
membrane stability, MD percentage, green percentage, grain filling period per spike, but there is a significant relationship in terms of
chlorophyll content, leaf color, the number of days to heading, flowering, anthesis, maturity, the plant length, the total number of tillers,
number of fertile tillers, harvest index, peduncle length, spike length, number of grains per spike, number of clusters per square meter and
weight of a thousand grains. Among cultivars, no significant meaning was observed in terms of stem diameter, crown depth and grain
weight per spike and the biological performance. The results of physiologic experiments indicated that cultivars with above average grain
performance have generally lower EC, higher CWC in freezing conditions and more Chlorophyll rate in the cold stress conditions.

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