Screening techniques at seed, seedling and whole plant level for drought tolerance

Abstract

The experiment was conducted under green house with two treatments, stress and non stress condition. In the present investigation, the pigeonpea genotypes were subjected to different screening techniques at seed, seedling and whole plant level for drought tolerance such as PEG induced moisture stress at seed level, gravimetric approach at seedling and whole plant level. Observations on root and shoot length, Root to Shoot ratio, Relative Water Content, rate of water loss, proline content, chlorophyll content and catalase activity were taken and finally from the present investigation which includes physiological screening of pigeonpea genotypes, it is evident that genotype ICPL-87 showed best performance under moisture stress condition and considered as a promising drought tolerant genotype and RVK-285 showed poor performance under moisture stress condition and considered as a drought sensitive genotype. However, the genotype TS-3R showed relatively better tolerance to moisture stress condition and considered as a moderately tolerant genotype.