The cultivar Siete Cerros with tolerance to iron toxicity and the cultivar BH-1146 showing sensitivity to iron, were crossed. Parents and seeds F2 of this cross were cultivated in aerated nutrient solutions containing 0.56, 5 and 10mg/l of iron, under constant temperature (27± 1°C) and pH 4.0. The length of the central primary root of each genotype under study after ten days being cultivated in nutrient solutions containing different iron concentration was used to evaluate the levels of tolerance to this element. It was observed partial dominance for iron tolerance considering the studied F2 population. Broad sense heritability estimates were high for iron tolerance expressed by root growth capacity in nutrient solutions with 5 and 10mg/l of iron. These results suggested that great part of the total variation found in the studied F2 population for this characteristic was of genetic origin. So, selection for iron tolerance would be effective in early segregating generations from the cross envolving a tolerant and a sensitive cultivar.
wheat tolerance to iron toxicity; Siete Cerros; tolerant cultivar and BH-1146; sensitive cultivar; nutrient solutions