A b s t r a c t. The study was aimed at the evaluation of the impact of drought stress on the efficiency of the photosynthetic apparatus of rye inbred line GULbw, evaluated based on measurements of chlorophyll fluorescence and gas exchange parameters, water balance, assimilation pigments and morphological characters, and by the analysis of the relationship between these parameters. The experiment was performed on the rye inbred line GULbw (original name: Gülzow 661-67, accession numbers: GueR 412; R 1599), obtained from the gene bank of The Federal ex situ Gene Bank for Agricultural and Horticultural Crop Species of The Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research Gatersleben. Because of drought, the PSII (photosystem PS II) performance index was reduced, and the decrease tendency of the PI (overall performance index of PSII) value intensified with the length of the stress period. The tested rye line did not exhibit any considerable variability of the maximum quantum efficiency of the PS II (Fv/Fm). Significant differences in the intensity of transpiration, stomatal conductance, and substomatal concentration of CO 2 was determined on day 18 of drought. A significant positive value of the correlation coefficient r was found between PLSN, LSW, LSGN, LSGW, and E, gs, ci. LIST OF SYMBOLS USED C -control, well-watered variant of the experiment; c i -intercellular CO 2 concentration; D -drought, water deficit variant of the experiment; E -transpiration rate; Fm -maximal fluorescence; Fv -maximal variable fluorescence; Fv/Fm -maximal quantum yield of PSII photochemistry; gs -stomatal conductance; LSDW -lateral stalk spikes dry weight; LSGN -productive lateral spikes grain number; LSGW -productive lateral spikes grain weight; LSN -lateral stalk number; LSTGW -productive lateral spikes thousand grain weight; LSW -productive lateral spikes weight; MSGN -main stem grain number; MSGW -main stem grain weight; MSSL -main stem spike length; MSSW -main stem spike weight; MSTGW-main stem thousand grain weight; MSW -main stem dry weight; PC1 -principal component 1, PC2 -principal component 2; PH -plant height; PI -overall performance index of PSII; PL -peduncle length; PLSN -productive lateral spike number; Pn-net photosynthetic rate; PW -plant dry weight; RWC -relative water content; SN -stalk number; T FM -time required to reach maximal fluorescence; WSD -water saturation deficit; WUE -photosynthetic index of water use efficiency; WUEI -instantaneous photosynthetic index of water use efficiency.