Abstract:
Salinity is one of the most important ecological constraints for cereal crops
including wheat. The present study was conducted to investigate the salinitytolerance
potential among synthetically developed salt-resistant wheat lines
compared with three commercial wheat varieties. After screening the selected
wheat germplasm at varying saline conditions (0 mM, 50 mM, 100 mM, 150 mM
and 200 mM); seed germination rate, lengths of roots and shoots and fresh and dry
weights of roots and shoots were investigated followed by biochemical evaluation
including photosynthetic pigments (chlorophyl a, chlorophyll b, carotenoids), ionic
(Na+, K+, Ca+) contents, antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase (SOD),
peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT), total soluble proteins (TSP) and total soluble
sugars (TSS). A similar pattern was observed in both physiological and
biochemical parameters; all the parameters tend to decrease with increasing
salinity concentration except germination rate, sodium ions, SOD, POD, CAT, TSP
and TSS which increased with increasing salt concentration. Our results revealed
that synthetic lines; SH-Salt-01, SH-Salt-02, SH-Salt-03, SH-Salt-04, SH-Salt-06,
SH-Salt-07, SH-Salt-08, SH-Salt-09, SH-Salt-12 and SH-Salt-13 have significant
tolerance to varying levels of salt (Sodium Chloride; NaCl) as compared to
commonly grown wheat cultivars (Zarghoon-79, Kharchia and S-24). Two
synthetic lines; SH-Salt-02 and SH-Salt-04 have performed best under the given
set of stress conditions. It has also been observed that wheat seedlings performed
better at 50 mM concentration of NaCl as compared to control (0 mM NaCl) and
other levels of salt (100 mM, 150 mM, 200 mM).
