Use of Restricted Maximum Likelihood Approach for Estimation of Genotypic Correlation and Heritability in Bread Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Under Water Deficit Stress

Wheat is mostly cultivated at rainfed condition in Iran, so, water deficit stress has much effect on yield reduction. Hence, breeding activities are necessary for introduction of wheat tolerant genotypes to water deficit stress. In order to estimate the heritability and genetic correlation between traits of 36 wheat genotypes, an experiment was conducted in two separate conditions (water stress and non-stress) based on a randomized complete blocks design with three replications. Studied traits in wheat genotypes under water stress and normal condition showed significant differences for environment, genotype and genotype× environment interaction at 1 and 5% level of probability. The results of the factor analysis showed that the 6 first factor in normal condition explained 81.13% of total variance, and the 5 first factor in stress condition explained 74.96% of total variance. Estimation of genetic correlations based on REML approach revealed that biological yield, harvest index and number of grains per spike had the highest correlation with grain yield and these characteristics are of important for selecting the varieties with high yield under non-stress and stress conditions. Estimation of heritability based on REML approach showed that number of days to heading had the highest amount of heritability in both normal and stress conditions.