Agronomical Responses of Elite Winter Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Varieties in Phenotyping Experiments Under Continuous Water Withdrawal and Optimal Water Management in Greenhouses

Drought stress is a major environmental constraint that significantly reduces wheat productivity worldwide. In this study, seventeen wheat genotypes were evaluated under well-watered and drought-stressed conditions across two consecutive years (2023&ndash:2024) in a controlled greenhouse experiment. Twenty morphological and agronomic traits were recorded, and their responses to prolonged water limitation were assessed using multivariate statistical methods, including three-way ANOVA, principal component analysis (PCA), and cluster analysis. Drought stress significantly decreased all traits except the harvest index (HI), with the most severe reductions observed in traits related to secondary spikes (e.g., grain weight reduced by 95%). The ANOVA results confirmed significant genotype &times: treatment (G &times: T) interactions for key agronomic traits, with the strongest effect observed for total grain weight (F = 7064.30, p &lt: 0.001). A PCA reduced the 20 original variables to five principal components, explaining 87.2% of the total variance. These components reflected distinct trait groups associated with productivity, spike architecture, and development in phenology. Cluster analysis based on PCA scores grouped genotypes into three clusters with contrasting drought response profiles. A yield-based evaluation confirmed the cluster structure, distinguishing genotypes with a stable performance (average yield loss ~58%) from highly sensitive ones (~70% loss). Overall, the findings demonstrate that drought tolerance in wheat is governed by complex trait interactions. Integrating a trait-based multivariate analysis with a yield stability assessment enables the identification of genotypes with superior adaptation to water-limited environments, providing an excellent genotype background for future breeding efforts.