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RESPONSE OF WHEAT GENOTYPES TO SALINITY AT EARLY GROWTH STAGES

S.H. GHALOO^1*, Z.A. SOOMRO¹, N.U. KHAN², Z. BIBI³, I.U. KHAN³, M.S. KAKAR⁴, S.A. TARAN⁴ AND A.A. RAJPER¹

Abstract: Investigations on screening of wheat genotypes under different salinity (NaCl) levels were carried out at Nuclear Institute of Agriculture (NIA) Tandojam, Pakistan during winter season of 2005-2006. The seeds of 8 different wheat genotypes viz., Sarsabz, Anmol-91, Kiran-95, Mehran-89, TJ-83, Moomal, Abadgar-94 and Marvi were sown in Petri dishes in NaCl concentrations of 50, 100, 150 and 200 mol^-3m in the laboratory condition. Results revealed that highly significant (p≤0.01) differences were observed among the genotypes and salinity levels for germination, shoot and root length, fresh and dry shoot weight. Studies further exhibited that wheat cv. Moomal was found leading genotype and recorded maximum seed germination (88.75%), shoot length (5.58 mm), root length (4.64 mm), fresh shoot weight (0.55 g) and dry shoot weight (0.07 g) even in the presence of NaCl concentrations of 50 to 200 mol^-3m as compared to other genotypes. In interaction, the genotypes Moomal and Marvi were found best performing cultivars even in salinity level of 50 mol^-3m and showed best performance. On average, the increased levels of salinity (NaCl) significantly reduced the seedling growth and its related parameters in all the wheat genotypes.

¹Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Sindh Agriculture University, Tandojam, Pakistan

²Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, KP Agricultural University, Peshawar, Pakistan

³Department of Soil and Environmental Sciences, Gomal University, D.I. Khan, Pakistan

⁴Agriculture Research Institute, Sariab, Quetta, Pakistan

^*E-mail: shghaloo@yahoo.com