Relationships among flag leaf chlorophyll content, agronomical traits, and some physiological traits of winter bread wheat genotypes

Abstract

In this study, relationships among flag leaf chlorophyll contents of some winter wheat genotypes, agronomical traits, and some physiological characters such as canopy temperature, membrane thermostability, membrane injury, and relative water content of flag leaf were evaluated. The study was conducted in the Application and Research Area of Siran Vocational School of Gumushane University in the growth season of 2010-2011. Chlorophyll content of genotypes were measured by a portable chlorophyll meter at the start of anthesis (ZGS 60) and the early milky stage (ZGS 73). The mean chlorophyll content of the tested genotypes at ZGS 60 was 45.6 as SPAD unit, and ranged from 39.1 for line 51 to 54.0 for line 42. Chlorophyll content as the mean of all genotypes at ZGS 73 was 41.8 as SPAD unit. Mean chlorophyll content of the genotypes at this growth stage ranged between 35.2 for line 27 and 50.9 for line 44. The mean pigment loss was the percent of 8.3 as an average of all genotypes. The chlorophyll loss ranged between 1.7 % for line 75 and 19.2 % for line 32. The statistically significant correlations between chlorophyll contents and main yield components like grain number per spike and spike yield were obtained at both measuring stages. The significant correlation between chlorophyll loss and chlorophyll content was positive at ZGS 60, but negative at ZGS 73. These results show that determination of flag leaf chlorophyll content in winter wheat is important selection criteria for yield components in breeding programs.