A Comparison of Screening Criteria for Salt Tolerance in Wheat under Field and Controlled Environmental Conditions

Abstract

Although many screening criteria have been suggested to distinguish between genotypes for their salt tolerance under controlled environmental conditions, there is a need to test these criteria in the field. Saline soils are often complex and, therefore, unlikely to show a simple relationship to controlled conditions. To address this deficit, different agronomic and physiological screening criteria for salt tolerance in wheat at different stages were examined under both field and controlled conditions. Four wheat genotypes differing in their salt-tolerance levels were grown in salt-affected soil at two different locations and also under greenhouse conditions. Dry weight and leaf area of the upper and lower two leaves of the main stem and total dry weight at Zadoks scale 47 were measured in plants grown under field conditions. The concentrations of Cl ) , Na + , K + and Ca 2+ in the upper and lower two leaves of the main stem at Zadoks scale 47 and different yield components were measured in plants grown under both conditions. Our results indicate that measurements derived from the upper two leaves of the main stem were generally more effective as screening criteria than those from the lower two leaves. Correlation coefficients between grain yield and either dry weight or leaf area of the upper two leaves of the main stem indicated that dry weight is inferior to leaf area as a screening criterion under field conditions. Number of sterile spikelets per plant performed well under both conditions, whereas the number of spikelets per plant and 1000-grain weight failed to distinguish the differences of salt-tolerance levels among genotypes accurately. Weight and number of grains per plant and number of fertile spikes per plant were poor criteria under controlled conditions, but effective under field conditions. The maintenance of low Cl ) and Na + concentrations in the upper two leaves offered the best guide to salt tolerance under both conditions. Potassium concentration was a poor criterion compared with the selectivity of K + over Na + , which was useful under both field and controlled conditions. Calcium concentration and Ca 2+ over Na + selectivity in the upper and/or lower two leaves of the main stem were also effective in ranking genotypes according to their salt tolerance under both field and controlled conditions. Therefore, we conclude that simple measurements of the upper two leaves of the main stem including a straightforward measurement of leaf area, visually estimating the number of sterile spikelets, and a quick, practical determination of Na + and Ca 2+ concentration constitute effective criteria to screen wheat genotypes for salt tolerance under both field and controlled conditions.

Comparative Performance of Multivariable Agro-Physiological Parameters for Detecting Salt Tolerance of Wheat Cultivars under Simulated Saline Field Growing Conditions

“…Wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.) is only moderately tolerant to salinity; the loss in its grain yield exceeds 60% due to soil salinity (El-Hendawy et al, 2009; Saleem et al, 2011). There are several agronomic management practices that can alleviate the adverse effects of salinity stress on the growth and yield of wheat: for example, the mixing of large quantities of gypsum into the soil, and the use of effective drainage schemes and leaching portion.…”

Evaluation of wheat landrace genotypes for salinity tolerance at vegetative stage by using morphological and molecular markers

“…In addition, this stage is foretelling of plant growth responses to salinity (Cuartero et al, 2006). Therefore, almost all research on salt tolerance in different crop species reported previously (Meneguzzo et al, 2000;Sabir and Ashraf, 2007;El-Hendawy, 2009) had included plant evaluation at this stage. Ali et al (2007) investigated 98 wheat accessions and found differential growth reductions to increased salinity stress.…”

Character association in mulberry under different magnitude of salinity stress

“…However, this is the first attempt in mulberry to investigate the correlation between leaf yield and its component characters under salt stress conditions. Studies in other crops also revealed such changes under severe salinity (El-Hendawy et al, 2009;Kumar and Gupta, 1984). For example, correlation and path coefficient studies on 15 varieties of barley on saline and normal conditions revealed that yield was strongly correlated with number of tillers, 100 grain weight on normal conditions and germination and number of tillers in saline (Kumar and Gupta, 1984).…”

“…Since, India, China, and other sericulturally important countries have vast areas affected by salinity especially in the arid and semiarid regions, evolution of salt tolerant mulberry varieties are seen to be an essential part of the ongoing research. Although studies in other crops like barley (Kumar and Gupta, 1984), tef (Asfwa and Itanna, 2009) and wheat (El-Hendawy et al, 2009;Sinclair and Hoffmann, 2003) have shown that the magnitude of association among traits associated with plant growth and developments vary significantly under different growing conditions. Unfortunately, there is a fundamental gap in our understanding on the relationship between tolerance at low and high salinity levels in mulberry.…”