Salinity Tolerance in Bread Wheat Cultivars from Turkey

Salinity is one of the major constraints to wheat production particularly in rain-fed areas, especially Central Anatolian Plateau (CAP), of Turkey. However, salt tolerance levels in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars currently growing in CAP have not been well documented yet. For this purpose, a total of 20 bread wheat cultivars, consisting of 10 rain-fed and 10 irrigated ones, were tested for vegetative stage tolerance to salinity at three different (0, 100 and 200 mM) NaCl concentrations in hydroponic culture. Significant differences (P<0.01) were identified between cultivars in terms of membrane stability (MS) and its injury (MI). Most of the salinity tolerant cultivars were from the rain-fed ones rather than the irrigated ones. Therefore, it may be concluded that there exists a close relationship between salinity and drought tolerances in wheat cultivars where are grown in co-existence of salinity and drought stresses. In addition, biplot method revealed that cultivars can be visually distinguished regarding genotypic responses to salinity.