Genetic variability in wheat genotypes for salt tolerance, growth and physiological responses

In arid and semi-arid regions of the world, soil salinity is becoming a major problem for crop production due to changing climate and shortage of good quality water. In these circumstances, screening, breeding and cultivation of food crop species or genotypes with high tolerance to salinity may be considered as the most feasible and effective approach, for fulfilling the safe food requirement of increasing population. Therefore, a hydroponic study was conducted to evaluate the genetic variations in Pakistani wheat genotypes for salt tolerance. In present study, two salinity levels (100 and 200 mM NaCl) along with a control and twelve wheat genotypes were evaluated. The results showed that SARC-I (V-5), Sehar-2006 (V-8) and Shafaq-2006 (V-9) were found tolerant to salinity because of better growth, lower NaCl relative toxicities, leaf Na+, higher tolerance indices, photosynthetic rate, total chlorophyll contents, transpiration rate, stomatal conductance and leaf K+ concentration. Thus, these genotypes were found as valuable resource that can be used in further wheat breeding programs aimed at increasing salinity tolerance.