SANJAY SINGH, SHAILESH KUMAR SINGH* AND RAKESH SINGH SENGAR
School of Agriculture, Lovely Professtional University, Phagwara-144 411 (Punjab), India
*(e-mail : lpushailesh@gmail.com; Mobile : 98559-49955)
ABSTRACT
Soil salinity acts as abiotic pressure and restraining factor in crop production and is most significant factor which can alter the productivity of a land and a variety. Salinity is inherited property of soil which has been originated from parent rocks regulated by multiple genes governing a set of biochemical and physiological changes. Thus, it is an imperative requirement set to recognize new sources of salt tolerance to broaden the genetic pool base and to avail donor plants. Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is one of leading cereal crops which is suffering from severe loss of grain yield due to salinity of soil. The purpose of the present investigation was to recognize new sources of salt tolerance based on their relative performance on multiple parameters with respect to salt tolerance indices at 10.0 dS/m in wheat. Six bread wheat genotypes (VL 719, K 9533, K 72, UP 2425, PBW 373 and HUW 213) were evaluated in pots following completely randomized design for salinity tolerance at imposed on 21 days after sowing (S1) and at the time of sowing (S2). In the present study, K 72 was found to be the most tolerant, while HUW 213 was salt sensitive among studied genotypes according to cluster analysis based on relative salt tolerance indices of multiple parameters. The differences among genotypes of bread wheat reflected
important genetic variability under salinity, which can be more explored and used for improving breeding programmes of wheat. The cluster analysis can facilitate rankings of tolerance genotype of salt based on multiple or variant agronomic parameters.
Key words : Bread wheat, salinity, sodium, potassium, tolerance indices