Abstract:In order to explore the water consumption characteristics, root physiological characteristics and yield response to anthesis stage drought of different drought-tolerant wheat varieties, taking drought-tolerant variety "Xinchun 6" (XC 6) and drought-intolerant variety "Xinchun 22" (XC 22) as the experimental materials, conventional irrigation (CK), mild drought (T1) and moderate drought (T2) at anthesis stage were set up under soil column cultivation and field conditions to investigate the effects of drought stress on water consumption characteristics, root physiological characteristics of different soil layers and yield of drip irrigation wheat field. The results showed that after anthesis stage drought, the water consumption and water consumption intensity of the two wheat varieties in the whole growth period were CK>T1>T2, and the water consumption modelcoefficient reached the maximum at the jointing-booting stage. After rehydration with T1 treatment, the bleeding fluid, root activity, hydraulic conductivity (Lpr), the avtivity of catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POD) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) and soluble protein (SP) content significantly increased, which promoted the increase of shoot mass and 1 000 grain weight, and improved yield and water use efficiency. Compared with XC 22, bleeding fluid, Lpr, root activity, SOD, POD, SP content, shoot quality and yield of XC 6 all significantly increased. In T1 treatment, the bleeding fluid and Lpr of XC 6 were 5.4% to 25.1%, 2.2% to 15.7%higher than those of XC 22, respectively, and the SOD (6.9% to 20.0%, 2.6% to 24.7% and 3.6% to 31.1%), POD (4.1% to 19.1%, 3.9% to 25.2% and 3.7% to 21.6%), CAT (7.8% to 15.2%, 8.3% to 13.3% and 10.8% to 13.3%) activities and SP content(4.5% to 20.4%, 0.8% to 29.4% and 1.3% to 7.9%) in 0-20, 20-40 and 40-60 cm soil layers were significantly higherthan those of XC 22, respectively. Root mass, shoot mass and yield had a quadratic parabola relationship with water consumption, and there was a significant positive correlation with bleeding fluid, Lpr, MDA and CAT activities. The interaction between water treatment and varieties had significant effects on Lpr, POD, CAT and SP content. Therefore, mild anthesis stage drought of drought-tolerant variety could reduce water consumption, improve root SP content and antioxidant enzyme activity, so as to enhance root activity, improve shoot mass, and improve yield and water use efficiency.