Evaluating Salt-Tolerant Wheat Genotypes in Seedlings Exposed to Diverse Salinity Stress Levels

Abstract

An excellent source of nutrients and a staple food crop is wheat. However, its growth, development, and yield are primarily limited by salt stress. The salt tolerance level of 40 wheat genotypes was investigated using a complete randomized design (CRD) in 250 mL disposable cups. Diverse genotypes were screened and characterized for their salt tolerance at the seedling stage against three treatment levels (control, 4 dSm^-1, 8 dSm^-1). The analysis of variance mentioned that all the studied attributes have highly significant differences among the genotypes. Genotypes G27, G5, and G32 performed well in the most studied indices and were considered as salt-tolerant genotypes while G6, G19, and G25 were poor performers in most of attributes and regarded as salt-sensitive genotypes under all treatments. Future wheat breeding initiatives could make use of the genotypes with the potential for salt tolerant to create high-yielding, salt-tolerant cultivars.