Water stress causes major agricultural loss throughout the world as survival of the crops remained under stress and loss in yield. Plants respond to drought stress by means of different adaptive mechanisms such as accumulation of osmoprotectants to counteract the water stress. Amino acid proline is known to occur widely in higher plants and normally accumulates in large quantities as an osmolyte in response to environmental stresses. Biochemical estimation of proline was done in the drought-affected wheat genotypes by spectrophotometric method. Proline promoted a positive effect as root/shoot ratio was enhanced in wheat germplasm under drought stress. SSR primer pairs (45) were tested for polymorphism among selected wheat genotypes. The dendrogram results have shown the wheat genotype association with the levels of proline during induced drought stress. The relationship between pattern of drought responsive biochemical attributes and DNA markers in the selected wheat genotypes was recognized to select drought tolerant genotypes for sowing in drought affected areas of the country.
Keywords: Drought; Markers; Proline; Stress; Wheat.