Effect of Water Stress on Gas Exchanges, Leaf Soluble Protein and Chlorophyll Content of Sardari Wheat Ecotypes

In order to investigate the responses of Sardari wheat ecotypes to drought stress, 12 spikes of Sardari wheat were selected from different regions of Kurdistan province and planted as head to row. In the second year, a split- plot factorial field experiment was conducted. In this experiment water stress and irrigation were considered as the levels of main factor and 12 Sardari wheat ecotypes allocated to subplots. In the third year, the harvested wheat ecotypes in the second year were grown under control and drought conditions to evaluate grain yield and stress susceptibility index (SSI). Results showed that photosynthesis rate, rate of leaf water loss, protein and chlorophyll content, mesophyll conductance, photosynthetically water use efficiency and sub stomatal CO2 concentration were affected significantly by water stress in all wheat landraces. The results revealed that ecotypes with higher photosynthetic rate showed higher transpiration. These ecotypes exhibited better mesophyll conductance and lower SSI. Leaf protein patterns of ecotypes by electrophoresis were similar to that of soluble protein content under drought stress. The results showed that under drought stress, the new bands of protein were identified which correlated with pattern of photosynthesis of ecotypes in this condition.