Bam, A New Bread Wheat Cultivar for Moderate Climate Zones with Salinity of Soil and Water

Wheat is the first among cultivated crops in terms of hectare in Iran, and is cultivated on 6.2 million hectares under variable agro-climatic conditions. Of 2.2millions hectares of wheat crop grown under irrigation system, about 30% of the areas experience the adverse effects of salinity stress, which is one of the limiting factors of wheat production in warm and temperate regions of Iran. Selection and introduction of saline tolerant cultivars is one of the major goals of the wheat breeding program at the Seed and Plant Improvement Institute (SPII). Using genetic resources, yield trails were conducted under salinity stress conditions to identify and introduce cultivars which have the ability to produce the expected grain yield under saline stressed conditions. The registration of a newly released saline tolerant spring wheat named Bam with a high grain yield and good adaptability to saline soils of warm and temperate regions is reported here. Bam cultivar a doubled haploid wheat with the pedigree of DH4-209-1577F3 Vee "s"/Nac//1-66-22 is a high-yielding, with good salinity tolerance and sufficient level of yellow rust resistance to be registered for production in southern part of Iran. Bam cultivar with high a molecular weight of gilliadin subunit proteins (2*,7+9,5+10 alleles) has a high grain protein percentage and an excellent quality for bread making. Combined grain yield means comparison showed that Bam with a 4.856 tha-1 grain yield was the top high yielding new line in comparison to Kavir check cultivar with a 4.136 tha-1 grain yield under salinity stress conditions. Results of stability analysis on grain yield using parametric method of Eberhart and Russell (1966) and non-parametric method of Rank Analysis (based on R and SDR parameters) showed that Bam cultivar with the lowest deviation of regression (S2di=0.37 and bi=-1.37), a good grain yield (4.856 tha-1) and the lowest standard deviation of rank (SDR=9.165) was determined as the most yield stable cultivar for regions with a high level of salinity stress in comparison to Kavir check cultivar. Results of grain yield obtained from on-farm and extension-research project trials in Yazd, Isfahan, Kerman and Neishabour supported the grain yield superiority of the new cultivar in comparison to commercial cultivars grown in those areas. It was officially release in 2007 for cultivation in moderate and warm regions of Iran.