Genetic analysis of salt tolerance in Iranian selected rice genotypes

Dissection of genetic architechture of salinity tolerance in different rice cultivars is a prerequisite of a breeding program for salinity stress. Therefore, to dissect genetics of salinity tolerance, 6 diverse rice genotypes such as Tarom mahalli, Gharib, Shahpasand, Dorfak, Sepidroud and IR28 were tested in a full diallel genetic design, 6×6, during 2007-08 at Rice Research Institute of Iran in Rasht, Iran. All cross combinations together with their parentss, totally 36 genotypes, were set in Randomized Complete Block Design with two replications. The plant materials were evaluated for salinity tolerance index, plant dry matter, sodium and potassium concentrations, Na+/K+ ratio at seedling stage and tiller number, grain weight, filled-grain, plant height and days to 50% flowering at reproductive stage in saline conditions with EC 10 and 12 ds/m, respectively. Analysis of variance for traits of interest among parents showed that they were significantly different for salinity tolerance index, plant dry matter, sodium uptake (%), tiller number, filled-grain.panicle-1, plant height and days to 50% flowering. Therefore, analysis of variance for combining ability was performed for this group of traits. Results of dissection of genetic variance to general, specific and cytoplasmic effects showed that for all these traits those components were highly significant. It’s revealed that both additive and non-additive components of genetic variance were important. Estimation of genetic parameters showed that both additive and dominance variances as well as maternal effect were important in controlling of the traits of interest. We also found that broad sense heritability (h2b) was rather high and ranged from 0.25 to 0.75 for different traits. According to results, cultivar Tarom was good combiner for increasing salinity tolerance index, lower sodium concentration and short duration for days to 50% flowering and Shahpasand was the second suitable parent and combiner for salinity tolerance index, but was the best parent for sodium uptake. Therefore, the mechanism of tolerance to salinity could be related to storage of high amount of sodium in the cell vacuoles.