Evaluation of salinity stress tolerance based on biochemical and morphophysiological characteristics of some wheat cultivars

To study the effect of salinity stress on biochemical and morphophysiological characteristics of some wheat cultivars in seedling stage, a factorial experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design with three replications at the Research Laboratory, Agriculture Faculty, University of Zabol in 2016. The experimental treatments were salt stress at 4 levels (control, 100, 200, 300 mM NaCl) and 11 Bread Wheat cultivars and one cultivar Durum Wheat. The cultivars were significant (P≤0.01) for all studied traits except for stomatal conductance. Simple correlation coefficients between traits showed that There was a positive and significant correlation between germination percentage and germination rate and a negative significant correlation between catalase activity and carbohydrate content in salinity stress conditions. Factor analysis based on principal component analysis and Varimax rotation in non-stress and in salinity conditions (average tensions), Factor analysis was identified five factors for normal and five factors for severe stress conditions that at overall were explained 87.13 and 83.11 % of total variation, respectively. The results of factor analysis showed that stress tolerance component including proline content, ascorbate peroxidase activity, glutathione peroxidase activity, length and number of rootlet were selected for selection of suitable cultivars for salinity stress conditions. The cultivars were classified into two groups using cluster analysis in both conditions of non-stress and salinity stress. According to the results, it could be exploited from genetic diversity in breeding programs, using genotypes of the first and second group in hybridization because of their maximum difference.