Evaluation of Grain Yield Stability and Genetic Variation in Salt-Tolerant Bread Wheat Promising Lines and Cultivars

Yield stability and genetic variation in 17 salt-tolerant bread wheat promising lines and three cultivars; Arg, Bam and Ofough were evaluated in field trials as well as by molecular assay. In field, yield trials of genotypes was carried out in saline soils of Melishbar (Yazd), Amirabad (Birjand), Roudasht (Isfahan), Ekhtiarabad (Kerman) and Zahak (Zabol) agriculturar research stations, Iran, in 2012-13 and 2013-14 cropping cycle. To evaluate genetic variation among genotypes, 18 SSR markers that were previously mapped on salt-tolerant quantitative trait loci (QTLs) were used. Combined analysis of variance revealed significant differences for genotype main effect and year × location, year × genotype and year × location × genotype interaction effects. Grain yield comparison of genotypes using least significant difference(LSD) test showed that lines 14, 16, 11 and 5 with grain yields of 4.649, 4.517, 4.441 and 4.300 tha-1 had higher grain yields among genotypes. Different methods of stability analysis revealed that genotypes 11, 15, 16 and 20 (cultivar Ofough) had higher yield stability compared to the other genotypes. Cluster analysis of molecular data using UPGMA method and principal component analysis (PCoA) classified studied genotypes into four major groups. Results of cluster analysis based on molecular data were not in agreement with the results of field experiments. Results of Mantel’s test indicated that correlation between grain yield under salinity stress conditions and their allelic diversity was about 0.13 and not-significant. Despite this weak correlation, SSR markers could greatly reveal genetic variation among wheat genotypes. This genetic variation can effectively be used in wheat breeding programs for salt tolerance in Iran.