Abstract

Soil salinity is among the major abiotic stresses affecting crop yield. Phenotypic and biochemical studies are needed for screening of salt tolerant genotypes that could be used in breeding programme. The present study was conducted to ascertain the morphological or agronomical traits contributing for yield and to identify salt tolerant RILs. A mapping population of 94 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) (F8) developed from cross between wheat genotype Kharchia 65 and HD 2009 were sown under stressed and non-stressed condition in microplots. STI was calculated to normalize the data. Salinity tolerance value was calculated through PCA and STI values. Based on the salinity tolerance value the RILs were grouped into three groups tolerant, moderately tolerant and susceptible. PCA indicated that the first three components accounted for 63.35% of the total variations. Tiller number showed significant positive correlation with number of earheads, plant height, length of earheads, spike number, K⁺ concentration and 1000 grain weight. Proline is an important biochemical parameter and its accumulation under salt stress condition is related with salinity tolerance and ultimately to grain yield. The study concluded that PCA based grouping is an effective tool to identify tolerant genotypes and that tiller number is a good parameter for evaluating salinity tolerance at early growth stages in plants.

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