Evaluation of wheat genotypes for salinity tolerance under real saline conditions: In situ

Abstract

Salinity is one of the major abiotic stress factors that limit the productivity of crops, including wheat, in many regions of the world. Therefore, the priority in wheat breeding, to ensure global food security, is developing varieties that are adapted to saline environments. In situ, evaluation of wheat genotypes can provide valuable information on the performance of different genotypes under natural saline conditions and can help to identify the most salt-tolerant genotypes. To ensure an accurate evaluation of the performance of twenty-seven wheat genotypes under different environments, the trial was conducted on two different soil types (solonetz and chernozem) in two growing seasons. AMMI analysis shows that the environmental factor had the largest share (55.15%) in the variation of grain yield, where soil type had a dominant effect. Genotypes Renesansa, Harmonija, and Bankut 1205 achieved a high grain yield on both soil types. However, among the mentioned genotypes, the genotype Harmonija showed the highest tolerance to salinity. A significant proportion of the genotype and environment interaction (GEI; 25.89%) shows that there is a change in the ranking of genotypes across environments. According to the AMMI1 biplot, the genotypes Renesansa and Harmonija were distinguished by high grain yield and high stability. The environment Chernozem 2015/2016 had the greatest contribution to the GEI and the highest grain yield, while Solonetz 2017/2018 was characterized by the highest stability and the lowest grain yield. According to the AMMI2 biplot, genotype Harmonija achieved high stability in unfavourable environmental conditions that characterized the environment Solonetz 2017/2018.