The analysis of drought resistance in different wheat varieties during germination in southwest area of China

To identify drought resistance indexes,responses from twenty wheat varieties to osmotic stress during the germination period were studied by adopting 20% PEG- 6000 solution as drought stress treatment,and the overall drought resistance capabilities were analyzed. The results showed that the germination potential,germination rate,germination index,radicle length,radicle number,coleoptile length and germ length of each variety were decreased under PEG stress,and these indexes of different varieties were reduced at different levels with average reduction rates at 59.1%,17. 1%,51. 7%,51. 4%,18. 5%,19. 6% and 71. 1%,respectively. This was inconsistent with the results examined by varieties with single index of drought resistance. The combination of membership function method and system clustering method was used to have identified that Shuwan 8 was strong,Mianmai 1403 was weak,Chuanmai 42 and Chuanmai 55 were incapable,and the rest were moderate in drought resistance. Correlation analyses showed that the relative germination rate had the maximal positive correlation( 0. 90) with the D value,indicating that the relative germination rate could be used to provide fast identification of the drought resistance index in wheat.