EVALUATION OF GENETIC VARIABILITY FOR SALT TOLERANCE IN WHEAT

Wheat is an important cereal crop which has been consumed as food crop throughout the globe. Present study discusses change in different morphological traits of six most common wheat varieties in Pakistan under the effect of salt stress. We have used two salt solutions; 10 dS/m NaCl and 15 dS/m NaCl concentrations were used in our research. Data collected during research indicates that all morphological traits decrease under salt treatments except that of two trait viz., root length and carotenoids level. It was noted that under the effect of both salt concentrations carotenoids content increased in significant amount in leaves and roots along with root length which was also increased. The outcomes from analysis of variance demonstrated that there was higher leaf caroteniods for genotype 5 (Ujala-16) that was 998.32 mg/g of fresh leaf weight trailed by genotype 1 (Inqalab-91) 995.99 mg/g of fresh leaf weight) while lower carotenoids were found for genotype 2(Shafaq-06) that was 825.65 mg/g of fresh leaf weight. Highest root weight was found in Shafaq-06 under treatment of 15dS/m NaCl. While pooled all Pairwise comparison test revealed highest root length in genotype 4 (Galaxy-13). While linear regression suggests that carotenoids content contribute least in plant height. Genetic heritability was found highest for photosynthetic pigments i.e. 99.99% for chlorophyll b except that of carotenoids. Genetic advance was recorded higher for fresh stem weight (309.870%). Higher heritability and genetic advance revealed that from our study that the selection of salt stress wheat genotypes on the basis of root length may be help to develop salt stress tolerance wheat genotypes with higher grain yield.