Biochemical indices and RAPD markers for salt tolerance in wheat genotypes

The present study examines ten wheat (5 Triticum aestivum, 4 T. durum, and 1 T. diccocum) genotypes for biochemical and RAPD markers associated with NaCl based salt tolerance capacity [T0(control), T1(50 mM NaCl), T2(100 mM NaCl) and T3(150 mM NaCl)]. The highest STI was obtained with four tolerant KH-65 (81.32), KRL-213 (81.24), DDK-1025 (80.70), and HI-8498 (80.00) wheat genotypes. The free proline was positively correlated with STI, followed by free amino acids and total sugars, suggesting their roles as osmolytes to overcome the salt stress in wheat genotypes. The RAPD analysis of wheat genotypes carried out with twenty-two RAPD primers generated a total of 129 alleles out of which 90 bands were polymorphic with an average of 4.09 bands and 65.1 % polymorphism per primer. The unique and genotype specific markers were obtained by eight RAPD primers. The phylogenetic analysis of wheat genotypes showed a Jaccard similarity coefficient in the range of 0.64–0.78. Clustering pattern of wheat genotype indicated four salt tolerant genotypes (one Triticum aestivum, two T. durum, one T. diccocum) grouped into one cluster and shared minimum (64 %) similarity with each other. The most tolerant two wheat genotypes KH-65 (T. aestivum) and KRL-213 (T. durum) were grouped together and shared maximum (78 %) similarity each other. The maximum five unique bands were found to discriminate salt tolerant KRL-213 and further characterization of salinity tolerant trait in wheat genotypes. © 2016, Indian Society for Plant Physiology.