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Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is one of the most important cereal crops in many countries including India. Changing climate not only threatened crop physiology but also limits global productivity. Drought is one of the major worldwide stresses that cause devastating effects on the genotype of wheat. The two-year investigation was aimed at pot house of Baba Mastnath University, Rohtak to enumerate the effects of drought stress on wheat chlorophyll content, chlorophyll stability index and membrane stability index. The implication of drought on wheat genotype showed a reduction in chlorophyll content, chlorophyll stability index, membrane stability index, biomass per plant and yield per plant as compared to the control condition. Under drought stress, the mean decrease in chlorophyll content ranged from 34.0 to 10.1 mg/g FW for chlorophyll ‘a' and 13.5 to 5.0 mg/g FW for chlorophyll ‘b'. The chlorophyll stability index reduced from 54.0 to 42.8 percent, while the membrane stability index also declined from 85.7 to 37.4 percent. The onset of the drought lowered biomass and yield per plant, respectively, from 55.4 to 26.2 g and 2.1 to 1.6 g. Wheat genotypes C-306, DHTW-60 followed by HD-3086 and PBW-771 have been found promising in all the tested traits (viz., chlorophyll content, chlorophyll stability index, membrane stability index, biomass per plant and yield per plant) and genotypes, which can be used for cultivation under drought influenced area.

Keywords: Chlorophyll stability index, Cell membrane stability, Membrane stability index, Biomass and Grain yield.