Drought is one of the most important abiotic factors affecting wheat production and development of tolerant genotypes is limited by the lack of effective selection criteria. A genetic analysis of drought tolerance indices at seedling stage (i.e. root length, shoot length, root/shoot ratio and seedling dry weight) was performed for a seven-parent half diallel cross of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in Egypt. The parents and their F₂ progenies were evaluated in the laboratory under osmotic stress induced by polyethylene glycol (PEG) with five treatments (i.e. 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20% PEG-6000). Grain yield per spike was also evaluated under drought stressed field conditions. The parent P₇ had maximum root and shoot lengths under stress conditions, highest root/shoot ratio under 20% PEG and higher grain yield per spike than the other parents suggesting that P₇ possessed stress tolerance genes. Grain yield/spike was significantly correlated with root length (r= 0.41, P<0.05) and seedling dry weight (r= 0.46, P<0.05) at 15% PEG. Both additive and non-additive gene effects were involved in the genetic control of all traits. Rather low to moderately narrow-sense heritability was obtained for root length (0.18 and 0.12) and shoot length (0.19 and 0.12) at 15 and 20% PEG, respectively; root/shoot ratio (0.15) and seedling dry weight (0.16) at 15% PEG. Moderate genetic advance was observed for root length (41.24%) and shoot length (29.96%) under stress conditions suggesting that selection could be practiced on both traits for improving drought tolerance in wheat breeding programs.

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