Depleting groundwater resources, climate change and erratic rainfall necessitate the development of way outs to improve crop productivity with limited water availability. One of the strategies is to explore and evaluate the genetic resources especially wild relatives of crop for water stress tolerance. Thus, an experiment was conducted to screen eighty Triticum durum × Aegilops tauschii wheat synthetics along with 10 controls for drought tolerance under in vitro conditions in completely randomized design under polyethylene glycol (PEG)-induced water stress. The synthetics were assessed for seedling growth, physiological parameters and photosynthetic pigments. A significant variation was exhibited by the synthetics of all the studied traits under control as well as stress condition. For all the traits, a declining trend was observed with decreasing water potential of PEG. Positive correlation between stress tolerance index with seedling growth traits, relative water content membrane thermostability index, chlorophyll and carotenoid content under severe stress, indicated the significance of these traits for selection of drought tolerant genotypes. Principal component analysis highlighted the contribution of only root–shoot ratio toward water stress tolerance. Based on various studied traits, TA 84-5, TA 73, TA 156-3, TA 41-1, TA 63, TA 93, TA 96, TA 129b and TA 154 were identified as potential synthetics which can be used for developing drought tolerant wheat varieties.

地下水资源枯竭、气候变化和降雨不稳定，需要在水资源有限的情况下开发提高作物生产力的出路。策略之一是探索和评估遗传资源，特别是作物野生近缘种的耐水胁迫能力。因此，进行了一项试验，筛选了 80株硬粒小麦× Aegilops tauschii小麦合成物以及 10 个在聚乙二醇 (PEG) 诱导的水分胁迫下完全随机设计的体外条件下的耐旱性对照。评估合成物的幼苗生长、生理参数和光合色素。在控制和胁迫条件下，所有研究性状的合成物都表现出显着的变化。对于所有性状，随着PEG水势的降低，观察到下降趋势。胁迫耐受指数与幼苗生长性状、相对含水量膜热稳定性指数、严重胁迫下叶绿素和类胡萝卜素含量呈正相关，表明这些性状对选择耐旱基因型具有重要意义。主成分分析强调了仅根冠比对耐水胁迫的贡献。基于各种研究性状，TA 84-5、TA 73、TA 156-3、TA 41-1、TA 63、TA 93、TA 96、TA 129b 和 TA 154 被确定为可用于发展干旱的潜在合成物耐性小麦品种。