Hayati Akman
Wheat (Triticum spp.) provides about one-fifth of global calories, yet modern cultivars possess a narrow genetic base, making the exploration of ancient tetraploid relatives such as Triticum turgidum ssp.turanicum and T. turgidum ssp.polonicum essential for uncovering valuable root and shoot traits to enhance climate resilience.This study aimed to characterize early-stage seminal root and shoot traits across a diverse panel of 25 genotypes, including modern bread wheats (T.aestivum), durum wheats (T.durum), T. turanicum, and T. polonicum, using a germination-paper assay under controlled laboratory conditions for 15 days, with measurements of plant height, coleoptile length, rooting depth, seminal root number, root and shoot biomass, root/shoot ratio, and root/total biomass ratio.Analysis of variance revealed highly significant genotypic variation (P < 0.001) for all traits.Notably, T. turanicum PI 481582 exhibited the longest coleoptile (10.3 cm) and PI 166554 the tallest plants (42.0 cm), indicating strong potential for deep-sowing tolerance, while T. polonicum PI 42209 achieved the deepest rooting (22.5 cm) and PI 192666 the highest root biomass (0.099 g).The modern durum variety Sırçalı demonstrated the highest root/shoot ratio (0.50) and root/total biomass percentage (33.4%), reflecting superior early carbon allocation to roots, whereas modern bread wheats, despite having shorter coleoptiles, maintained moderate rooting depths.These findings confirm that ancient wheat relatives are exceptional genetic resources for improving early root vigour and deep-sowing adaptation, while modern durum cultivars exhibit efficient biomass partitioning, collectively offering promising breeding materials to develop climate-resilient, high-yielding wheat varieties for future agricultural systems.