13 Journal of Wheat Research 8(1):13-18 Homepage: http://epubs.icar.org.in/ejournal/index.php/JWR Research Article Yield performance of resistant derivatives from cross involving DPW 621-50 and HD 2967 cultivars of wheat Rupinder Pal Singh*, Navtej Singh Bains and Virinder Singh Sohu Wheat Section, Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana-141004, Punjab, India. Abstract In this study, 191 highly stripe rust resistant lines were selected from F 6 population of cross DPW 621-50/HD 2967 with the objective of recovering transgressive segregants for yield and related traits. Yield performance of these 191 lines along with checks and parental lines was evaluated across two crop seasons (2013-14 and 2014-15). Preliminary yield trial (2013-14 season) displayed a large amount of variation present in derivatives for different yield related traits. Evaluation yielded 40 highly productive entries out of which, two lines namely, BWL 4438 (PBW 709) and BWL 4443 (PBW 724) were promoted to national co-ordinated trials. Healthy and vigorous ears were observed to produce more number of grains per spike but early fowering genotypes showed lesser number of grains per spike and were poor yielding. During 2014-15 season evaluation of selected forty lines was taken up along with the parents and checks. Entry BWL 4550 was found to have highest 1000-grain weight (51.050 g), surpassing all the checks. An important observation was recorded that grains per spike had negative correlation with plant height thus showing the adverse effect of lodging on grain flling due to excessive plant height. On the whole, strategy for extracting the transgressive segregants for different yield related parameters from the derivatives of cross involving two genetically diverse released cultivars (DPW 621-50 and HD 2967) proved to be an effective strategy. Keywords : Triticum aestivum, genetic variability, association, agronomic traits Article history Received: 08 March, 2016 Revised : 13 June, 2016 Accepted: 20 June, 2016 Citation Singh RP, NS Bains and VS Sohu. 2016. Yield performance of resistant derivatives from cross involving DPW 621-50 and HD 2967 cultivars of wheat. Journal of Wheat Research 8(1):13-18 *Corresponding author Email: rupinder03.pau@gmail.com @ Society for Advancement of Wheat Research 1. Introduction Wheat (Triticum aestivum) is the second most important staple food crop of the world providing more calories in human diet than any other crop worldwide and accounting nearly 30% of global cereal production covering an area of 222.42 million hectare with total production of 725.12 million tonnes (Anonymous, 2015 a). In India, during year 2014-15 the wheat production was recorded as 90.78 million tonnes from an area of 30.37 million hectares (Anonymous, 2015 b). But with an ever growing population, the country needs to produce 109 million tonnes of wheat by 2025 which is a major challenge under changing climatic scenario (FAO, 2010). Therefore, increasing wheat production is one of the strategies to meet the global food demand. According to world estimates, an average of 50% yield losses in agricultural crops is due to different biotic stresses under these changing climatic conditions (IPCC, 2007). Steady increase in wheat productivity since the green revolution is associated with genetic improvements in yield potential, resistance to diseases and adaptation to abiotic stresses as well as better agronomic practices (Evenson and Gollin, 2003). Growing worldwide demand for wheat and limited availability of land is placing pressure on breeding programs to provide elite cultivars that can adapt to a range of environments without compromising agronomic performance, grain quality, stress tolerance or disease resistance. Wheat production is constrained not merely due to limited natural resources and changing climate but to a greater extent by emergence of new virulent pathotypes of economically important pathogens. Among the diseases of wheat, cereal rusts are the most important constraints to wheat productivity. Stripe rust caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici, is one of the