3.1.1. Membrane Stability Index (MSI)
The characterization of wheat genotypes contrasting in their response to
drought stress was performed by checking membrane stability index. The
results showed that the mean value for membrane stability 55.227 was
recorded in control 100% field capacity. Similarly in drought condition
80% field capacity the mean value for membrane stability was 60.69 was
recorded. Likewise in severe drought condition 60% field capacity
condition the mean value 54.106 was recorded. (Table. 1, Fig. 1)
Analysis of variance (ANOVA) regarding MSI revealed that the effect of
drought stress is highly significant while genotypes and their
interaction with different level of drought stress are non-significant
as shown in (Table 2). The least significant difference (LSD) showed
that in normal condition 100% field capacity the membrane stability not
different significantly and stay-green chirya-1 genotype showed maximum
58.415 membrane stability index followed by SD-32. In drought condition
80% field capacity and 60% field capacity the means are not
significantly different from each other and highest value for membrane
stability 62.685 and 55.966 were recorded for SD-28 wheat genotype
respectively (Table 3).