Assortment of Some Egyptian Bread ᴡheat Genotypes under Salinity Stress Conditions

This investigation was conducted to examine the influence of salinity stress on agronomic and physiological traits of some bread wheat genotypes at Sakha Agricultural Research Station‚ Agricultural Research Center‚ Egypt during 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 seasons under normal and saline affected soil. Salinity treatments‚ genotypes and its interactions showed significant effects on the most measured traits. Salinity decreased the averages of all agronomic traits. The results presented significant differences between normal and salinity soil conditions for chlorophyll content index‚ leaf diffusive resistance and leaf transpiration rate traits. However‚ genotypes appeared significant differences for chlorophyll content index‚ canopy temperature‚ carbon dioxide concentration‚ flag leaf area and chlorophyll fluorescence traits. Meanwhile‚ the interaction between locations and genotype was significant canopy temperature‚ flag leaf area and chlorophyll fluorescence only. Canopy temperature in the non-saline soil cleared highest values compared to salinity soil conditions. Grain yield was positively correlated with grain filling rate (GFR)‚ thousand kernel weight (KW)‚ Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and spikes/m2 (SM2)however‚ it was negatively correlated with canopy temperature. This suggests that increasing NDVI‚ GFR‚ SM2 and KW in wheat breeding may be an effective strategy for improving productivity in both normal and salinized environments. Genotypes G19 and G20 significantly outperformed all studied genotypes and checked cultivars for grain yield under normal and salinity stress. Salinity tolerance and GGE biplot indices agreed that G19 and G20 had similar trend of the increased stress tolerance of genotypes and it can be source of salinity tolerance in a breeding program.