Response of Saudi and Egyptian wheat cultivars to salinity stress during germination

Effect of salinity stress on seed germination was tested on five Saudi and three Egyptian wheat cultivars. Seeds were moistened with different concentrations (0.0, 2420, 4864, 7424, 8704 and 11120 ppm) of sea water. Root, shoot and plant length and number of roots were measured in germinating seedlings. All cultivars showed high germination percentage ranging from 95.8-100% in absence of salt stress. Saudi cultivars Kaseemi and Tabuki were not affected at all concentrations of salt (sea water); while the germination of cultivar Najrani, Madini, Sakha 61, Sakha 93 and Sakha 94 were significantly decreased with salt concentration increase. The germination of cultivar Lukimi was affected by the first salt concentration but was not affected by increasing salt concentration. Salt tolerant cultivars are Kaseemi, Tabuki and Lukimi, but Egyptian cultivars were sensitive to all salt concentrations. All Saudi cultivars were resistant to salt concentrations except the last two salt concentrations (8704 and 11120 ppm), in which shoot and root lengths were greatly decreased. The number of roots and shoot/root ratios were not affected by increasing the salt concentration in all Saudi cultivars except cultivar Tabuki in which number of roots and shoot/root ratios decreased with increasing salt concentration. In all Egyptian cultivars, the shoot and root lengths were significantly decreased with increasing salt concentration. The number of roots in Sakha 93 and 94 was significantly decreased with increasing salt concentration, while the number of roots in Sakha 61 was not affected and also the shoot/root ratios were not affected in all Egyptian cultivars with increasing salt concentration.