Genetic analysis of leaf hydraulics in sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) under drought stress

Improvement in leaf hydraulics is directly related to the improvement of plant tolerance to drought stress. Therefore, a field and pot experiment was carried out to determine the type of genetic variability and selection of parental types on the basis of combining ability for leaf hydraulics. Genotypes showed similar performance in both experiments; higher values were shown by drought tolerant genotypes in all traits except for osmotic potential, which drought tolerant genotypes maintained lower. Osmotic adjustment in pot experiment showed the highest magnitude of additive type of genetic variability. Female showed a higher and significant contribution of general combining ability effects as compared to male; it suggests that within genotypes female rather than male mostly contribute for additive genes. AMES-10103 showed the highest general combining ability effects for traits such as turgor pressure and osmotic adjustment.