Investigating the Impact of Salt Stress on Wild Wheat Germplasm Collected from Turkey

Abstract

Wheat is among the staple crops providing daily food requirements for millions of people all over the world. However, wheat production is being to limited to various biotic and biotic stresses resulting through climate change. It is believed that if climate change activities continue at this pace, present and upcoming generations will pace a huge food crisis. Wheat wild relatives provide a cushion to the research community by acting a source of novel variations that can be used for the development of new cultivars. Wild wheat accessions belonging to various polyploidy levels i.e., T. boeoticum, T. dicoccoides and T. durum landraces collected from different locations of Fertil Crescent were used as plant material and were screened against salinity stress at the seedling stage. The ANOVA results showed significant differences between genotypes, stress treatments, and their interaction. The results indicate that T. dicoccoides genotypes were found more tolerant to salinity than other species for seedling weight. The results reveal that T. boeoticum genotypes were more tolerant to salinity than other species for seedling root length. The results indicate that T. dicoccoides genotypes were found more tolerant to salinity than other species for root weight. Regarding shoot length, T. dicoccoides genotypes performed better compared to others. T. durum genotypes had the highest STI value (0.53) for seed germination percentage. Thus, T. durum landraces were found to be more tolerant to salinity in terms of various studied traits and may serve as potential genetic sources for the development of salinity tolerance wheat cultivars.