Exploring the Role of Salt on Morpho-Physiological Response of Wheat Genotypes

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is the main cereal crop in Pakistan. Wheat is the principal source of food and is extensively grown, consumed, and preferred in Pakistan. But due to the increased use of poor-quality water for irrigation and salinization, their growth and yield are decreasing day by day in Pakistan. Wheat is a salt tolerant cereal crop, and new genotypes of wheat with diverse salt tolerance are being developed continuously to cope with salinity and improve crop productivity. A pot experiment was conducted in the Department of Soil and Environmental Sciences, Ghazi University, Dera Ghazi Khan, to explore the role of salt stress on the morphophysiological response of wheat genotypes. Treatments were T1: control, T2: 6 dsm-1, T3: 9 dsm-1, and T4:12 dsm-1 in a Factorial Completely Randomized Design (CRD). The results showed that salt stress reduced the growth parameters of wheat under a saline condition. Further, the wheat genotype G2 (108) is a more salt tolerant genotype because it gains the highest shoot fresh weight, plant height, shoot length, number of spikelets, shoot dry weight, root length, 1000 grain weight chlorophyll contents, membrane stability index, and less shoot Na+, while the genotype G1 (133) is a salt sensitive genotype. Our findings revealed that the genotype (108) is screened for the future to grow on salt affected soils.