Improving the salt tolerance of Chinese spring wheat through an evaluation of genotype genetic variation

Salinity represents a major environmental constraint to crop production across the world. Therefore, the effects of salinity on plant growth, mechanisms of salt tolerance in plants, and the screening for salt-tolerant crops have gained increasing attention of late. This study evaluated the effects of salinity on the growth of three different genotypes of Chinese spring wheat (Yongliang 4, Ba 9595 and MX 9H-15) compared to the salt-tolerant wheat genotype Sakha 93 from Egypt. All wheat genotypes were grown under greenhouse conditions under four salt levels (0, 50, 100 and 150 mM NaCl). Our results showed that salinity reduced plant height, total leaf area, shoot fresh weight and dry weight in all genotypes, whereas it increased the leaf SPAD value. Nevertheless, the precise impact of salinity on plant growth varied among the different growth stages and were also genotype dependent. This study confirms that Sakha 93 is the most salt tolerant among the tested genotypes in terms of plant growth and suggests that there is the potential to improve the salt tolerance of Chinese spring wheat. Achieving the latter would play an important role in increasing the yield of spring wheat in China.