Screening of Triticum Turgidum Ssp. Dicoccoides (Wild emmer wheat) for Heat Tolerance.

Heat stress is one of the important abiotic stress limiting wheat production worldwide. Limited genetic variability is the main bottleneck in adapted wheat varieties. Wild wheat is commonly adapted to a hot and dry environment, which might possess genetic and physiological variability in heat tolerance than conventional wheat varieties. The objective of this research is to screen wild emmer wheat for tolerance to high-temperature stress at the reproductive stage. 21 accessions of Triticum dicoccoides along with four check varieties “Jagger”, “U1275”, “Ventnor”, and “Jefimija” were evaluated at two temperature regimes: Optimum temperature (25/19) and High temperature (37/29) with a photoperiod of 16 hours. Plants were grown in the greenhouse until 10 days after anthesis and they were transferred to the growth chambers maintained either at optimum temperature or high temperature for 15 days. Flag leaf survival, flag leaf chlorophyll content, chlorophyll fluorescence was measured every alternate day until the death of flag leaf. Grain Yield per plant, biomass, number of tillers and heat susceptibility index were calculated after harvesting. High temperature decreased chlorophyll content, chlorophyll fluorescence, flag leaf survival days, seed yield, and biomass, but the decrease was less in some wild accessions. Screening of diverse tetraploid germplasm will assist in widening genetic variability of both common wheat and durum wheat.