Drought tolerance

Seedling

Morpho

Mathematics

Agronomy

Biology

Gene

Statistics

Genotype

Stage (stratigraphy)

Paleontology

Multivariate statistics

Botany

Drought resistance

Winter wheat

Genetics

Plants

Drought is one of the foremost environmental stresses that can severely limit crop growth and productivity by disrupting various physiological processes. In this study, the drought tolerance potential of 127 diverse bread wheat genotypes was evaluated by imposing polyethylene glycol (PEG)-induced drought followed by multivariate analysis of several growth-related attributes. Results showed significant variations in the mean values of different morpho-physiological traits due to PEG-induced drought effects. Correlation analysis revealed that most of the studied traits were significantly correlated among them. The robust hierarchical co-clustering indicated that all the genotypes were clustered into four major groups, with cluster 4 (26 genotypes) being, in general, drought-tolerant followed by cluster 1 (19 genotypes) whereas, cluster 2 (55 genotypes) and 3 (27 genotypes) being drought-sensitive. Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) confirmed that around 90% of the genotypes were correctly assigned to clusters. Squared distance (

Multivariate Analysis of Morpho-Physiological Traits Reveals Differential Drought Tolerance Potential of Bread Wheat Genotypes at the Seedling Stage