FIELD HETEROGENEITY OF THE STRESS AFFECTS GENOTYPIC RESPONSE TO SALINITY IN DURUM-WHEAT

A large durum wheat germplasm collection was evaluated for salinity tolerance at a naturally salt-affected site in northern Syria. Given the unreplicated experimental design (modified augmented design) adopted to cope with the size of the trial and limited seed available, a study was conducted on several replications of the control cultivar 'Haurani' used throughout the field, to assess the effects of soil heterogeneity on the genotypic response to the stress. The results confirmed previous observations on the great variation of salt content in naturally salinized field sites, and indicated that the variation of response to the stress was largely due to such soil variation. Implications of use of naturally saline sites on screening germplasm for stress tolerance are discussed.