Full Length Research Paper

Responses of some wheat genotypes and their F₂ progenies to salinity and heat stress

Mehmet Yildirim¹* and Bilge Bahar²

¹Department of Field Crops, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Dicle, 21280 Diyarbakir, Turkey.

²Department of Vegetable and Animal Production, Siran Highschool, Gumushane University, 29000 Gumushane, Turkey.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: mehmety@dicle.edu.tr. Tel:905336225690. Fax: 904122488153, 904122488320.

Accepted 14 June, 2010

Abstract

Both heat and salinity cause yield decrease in wheat. Grain yield in wheat has increased as a result of breeding efforts for different stress conditions. However, there are still substantial opportunities to improve grain yield by using conventional breeding under stress conditions, like heat and salt stress. The objective of this study was to investigate heat and salt effects on yield and some agronomic traits of four wheat genotypes and their six half F₂ diallel cross progenies grown in pots. Significant differences were found among the genotypes for grain yield under both heat stress and non-stress condition. There was a mean reduction in yield of 12.6% due to salt stress. The reduction in biomass was higher than grain yield under salt stress while it was lower at heat stress. Grain yield was positively correlated with spike weight, harvest index, grain numbers per plant and biological yield under non stress (NS), heat stress (HS) and salt stress (SS) conditions. Cultivars Seri 82 and Chil’s had high yield among parents under both NS and SS. Chil’s and its hybrids showed low reduction in yield due to SS; thus, exhibiting salt tolerance. Also, Chil’s was found to be good combiner with high General Combining Ability (GCA) effects for grain yield under SS conditions. 84 CZT04 was the most susceptible cultivar under SS. Significant GCA effects of Genç 99 and 84CZT04 provided positive contribution to grain yield under HS. It was impossible to select both heat and salt tolerant genotype with high yield capacity from the used genotypes. However, heat or salt tolerant genotypes can be improved by selection breeding due to genetic variation among genotypes.

Key words: Salt and heat stress, wheat, diallel.