Salinity is one of the major factors reducing plant growth and productivity worldwide and affects about 7% of world's total land area. In India about 6.73 million hectare of land area is salt affected. Wheat is the second most important crop after rice in India and occupies approximately 28.5 million hectare area. Several tolerance indices comprising of mean productivity (MP), geometric mean productivity (GMP), stress tolerance index (STI), stress stability index (SSI), tolerance index (TOL), yield index (YI) and yield stability index (YSI) were calculated in this investigation for salinity and its ability to understand which one or more predictor among studied indices based on correlation, principal component analysis and cluster analysis. Ten wheat genotypes were evaluated in two successive growing seasons (2012)(2013)(2014), with complete randomized design with three replications under both salinity stress and non-salinity to identify salt tolerant genotypes to the target environment. Multiple indices for salt tolerance were calculated based on the potential yield (Yp) under non-stress and yield (Ys) under stress conditions. The Ys and Yp showed highest significant and positive correlations with GMP, MP and STI among indices studied. Therefore, these indices were considered as a better predictor of Ys and Yp than TOL, SSI and YSI. Principal component analysis classified the genotypes into two groups. The first two PCs with eigen values >1 contributed 99.74% of the variability amongst genotypes. PC1 accounted for about 5.24% of the variation in salt tolerance indices and PC2 for 3.74%. The first PC was related to Ys, Yp, MP, GMP, STI and YI whereas the second PC related to Yp, TOL and SSI. The cluster analysis sequestrated ten genotypes into two clusters based on Ward's method. According to results, salinity significantly reduced the yield of some genotypes while some were found tolerant to stress indicating sufficient genetic variability for salinity tolerance among the studied genotypes. It could be implicated in selection of salinity tolerant wheat genotypes for the development of bread wheat varieties.

Rice, generally classified as a typical glycophyte, often faces abiotic stresses such as excessive drought, high salinity, prolonged submergence, cold, and temperature, which significantly affects growth, development, and ultimately, grain yield. Among these negative impacts of abiotic factors in rice production, salinity stress is a major constraint, followed by drought. There is considerable research on the use of marker-assisted selection (MAS), genome editing techniques, and transgenic studies that have profoundly improved the present-day rice breeders’ toolboxes for developing salt-tolerant varieties. Salinity stresses significantly affect rice plants during seedling and reproductive stages. Hence, greater understanding and manipulation of genetic architecture in developing salt-tolerant rice varieties will significantly impact sustainable rice production. Rice plants’ susceptibility or tolerance to high salinity has been reported to be the result of coordinated actions of multiple stress-responsive quantitative trait loci (QTLs)/genes. This paper reviews recent literature, updating the effects of salinity stress on rice plants and germplasm collections and screening for salinity tolerance by different breeding techniques. Mapping and identification of QTLs salt tolerance genes are illuminated. The present review updates recent breeding for improvement in rice tolerance to salinity stress and how state-of-the-art tools such as MAS or genetic engineering and genome editing techniques, including mutagenesis and conventional breeding techniques, can assist in transferring salt-tolerant QTLs genes into elite rice genotypes, accelerating breeding of salt-resistant rice cultivars.

Knowledge of agro-morphological genetic variation and cropping conditions on vegetative and yield-related traits plays a significant role in varietal improvement and production of eggplant (Solanum melongena L.). Following this premise, the current study was conducted to critically asses the genetic variation of 29 eggplant accessions by using agro-morphological characterization evaluated under two cropping conditions, namely, glasshouse and open field. The experiments were laid out in randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. Data on vegetative and yield characteristics were collected and subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) using SAS 9.4, while variance components were estimated manually. The results obtained from the analysis of variance indicated a highly significant difference (p ≤ 0.01) for all characteristics studied in both cropping conditions. The evaluated accessions were grouped into six major clusters based on agro-morphological traits using Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic mean (UPGMA) dendrogram. Hence, crosses between group I with VI or V could be used to attain higher heterosis and vigor among the accessions. Also, this evaluation could be used as a selection criterion for important yield agronomic traits in eggplant. The methodology and the approaches used may provide a model for the enhancement of other vegetable crop diversity towards adaptability to the cropping condition decision. This result displayed importance for preserving eggplant germplasm for future varietal development and revealed that open field cropping condition is more suitable under Malaysia’s agroecology.

Abiotic and biotic stresses adversely affect rice growth, development and grain yield. Traditional rice breeding techniques are insufficient in modern agriculture to meet the growing population’s food needs on a long-term basis. The development of DNA markers closely linked to target genes or QTLs on rice chromosomes, and advanced molecular techniques, such as marker-assisted selection (MAS), have encouraged the evolution of contemporary techniques in rice genetics and breeding, such as gene pyramiding. Gene pyramiding refers to the act of combining two or more genes from multiple parents into a single genotype, which allows the overexpression of more than one gene for broad-spectrum abiotic and biotic stress resistance. Marker-assisted pedigree, backcrossing and pseudo-backcrossing methods can increase the conventional breeding speed by reducing the number of breeding generations in order to enhance the pyramiding process. Pyramiding is affected by several factors: the number of transferred genes; the range within gene and flanking markers; the number of chosen populations in every breeding generation; the features of genes and germplasms; and the potentiality of breeders to identify the target genes. Modern breeding methods, such as the marker-assisted backcrossing approach, have made gene pyramiding more precise and reliable for the development of stress-tolerant rice varieties in the coming decades. This review presents up-to-date knowledge on gene pyramiding schemes, marker-assisted gene pyramiding techniques, the efficiency of marker-assisted gene pyramiding and the advantages and limitations of gene pyramiding methods. This review also reports on the potential application of marker-assisted selection breeding to develop stress-tolerant rice varieties that stabilize abiotic and biotic stresses. This review will help rice breeders to improve yields by increasing rice productivity under abiotic and biotic stress conditions.

Eleven morphologically diverse cultivated eggplant accessions were used for hybridization following half diallel mating design to obtain 55 hybrids. Evaluation of hybrids along with the parents was conducted over two locations followed by randomised complete block design with three replications to study gene action and combining ability of 15 morphological and biochemical traits. The analysis of variance indicated highly significant differences among the environments and interaction of genotype and environment, except for fruit length to width ratio. Additive gene effects were significant for the inheritance of these traits and expression of these additive genes were greatly affected by environments. The general combining ability (GCA) was greater than their respective specific combining ability (SCA) for all traits except for fruit yield per plant. High values of GCA and SCA effects for characters of interest were dispersed among different genotypes. From this study it was observed that the best parental line was BT15 based on days to first flowering, total number of fruits per plant, total soluble solids and total phenol content. Besides, the parent BM5 showed good general combining ability effects for fruit yield per plant, fruit length and fruit length to width ratio and the parent BB1 performed good general combining ability for fruit diameter, fruit girth and fruit weight. Besides, other parents showed the best performance for only one trait. On the other hand, the hybrid BT6 × BT15 was reported bearing early flowering with high total phenol content and the hybrid BM9 × BB26 has high fruit yield with high soluble solids. Besides, the hybrid BM9 × BB1 has a high fruit diameter and fruit weight. All other hybrids except for these three (BT6 × BT15, BM9 × BB26 and BM9 × BB1) were shown the best performance for only one trait. Hence, based on the desired trait, the hybrid can be selected for future use after large scale evaluation.