Field Screening of Wheat Advanced Lines for Salinity Tolerance

Abstract

Salinity in soil or irrigation water requires developing genetically salt-tolerant genotypes, especially in arid regions. Developing salt-tolerant and high-yielding wheat genotypes has become more urgent in particular with continuing global population growth and abrupt climate changes. The current study aimed at investigating the genetic variability of new breeding lines in three advanced generations F6–F8 under salinity stress. The evaluated advanced lines were derived through accurate pedigree selection under actual saline field conditions (7.74 dS/m) and using saline water in irrigation (8.35 dS/m). Ninety-four F6 lines were evaluated in 2017–2018 and reduced by selection to thirty-seven F7 lines in 2018–2019 and afterward to thirty-four F8 lines in 2019–2020 based on grain yield and related traits compared with adopted check cultivars. Significant genetic variability was detected for all evaluated agronomic traits across generations in the salt-stressed field. The elite F8 breeding lines displayed higher performance than the adopted check cultivars. These lines were classified based on yield index into four groups using hierarchical clustering ranging from highly salt-tolerant to slightly salt-tolerant genotypes, which efficiently enhance the narrow genetic pool of salt-tolerance. The detected response to selection and high to intermediate broad-sense heritability for measured traits displayed their potentiality to be utilized through advanced generations under salinity stress for identifying salt-tolerant breeding lines.

Sowing Date and Genotype Influence on Yield and Quality of Dual-Purpose Barley in a Salt-Affected Arid Region

“…The genotypes; G-123, G-126, and G-2000 produced highest forage yield, crude protein, grain yield and its components as well as biological yield. Such differences were due to genetic variation in used genotypes and their interaction with environmental conditions [18,29]. These results are in accordance with those reported by Royo et al [49]; Kaur et al [52]; Sharma [32]; Hundal et al [33]; Choudhary and Chaplot [51]; Hajighasemi et al [44]; and Kandic et al [35].…”

“…Wheat, barley, triticale, and oat are commonly cultivated for dual-purpose in the Mediterranean basin [12][13][14]. However, barley is advantaged by its tolerance to salinity and therefore producing higher biomass under salinity stress compared with other cereal crops [15][16][17][18]. In addition, it is characterized by rapid re-growing after grazing while maintaining similar yield levels to that of un-grazed ones [19].…”

Physiological and Biochemical Mechanisms of Exogenously Applied Selenium for Alleviating Destructive Impacts Induced by Salinity Stress in Bread Wheat

“…The present study demonstrated that soil salinity (200 and 250 mM NaCl) caused a considerable reduction in plant productivity (Figures 1 and 2). This reduction is attributed to the influence of osmotic pressure produced by salinity worsening metabolic functions and to the reduction in energy requirements and cellular divisions [48][49][50]. Salinity adverse effects led to a reduction in leaf photosynthetic pigments, photosynthetic efficiency, stomatal closure, imbalance in ionic and gas exchange, toxic ion uptake and, subsequently, growth inhibition [3,51].…”

Genome-wide association analysis of chickpea germplasms differing for salinity tolerance based on DArTseq markers

“…Sinai has saline water and soil, which affect the growth of different crops [ 37 ]. For instance, several Egyptian wheat genotypes were studied under salinity stress, and genetic divergence was detected by evaluating genotypes under the Sinai environment using molecular and biochemical indicators [ 38 , 39 ]. In our study, the phenotypic evaluation showed significant variations for salinity stress tolerance under saline conditions between various genotypes, indicating a potential of broad salinity tolerance within the global chickpea population.…”