Effect of Salt Stress in the Field on Performance, Correlations, Heritability and Selection Gain of Wheat Doubled Haploids

Abstract

The objective of the present investigation was to study the effect of salt affected soils in different locations in Egypt on performance, variability, correlations, heritability, and genetic advance from selection of 117 bread wheat doubled haploids and 4 checks. The experiments were conducted at the locations (seasons) Serw (2011/12), Sakha (2011/12), Sakha (2013/14) and Gemmeiza (2013/14); where soil ECe was 9.4, 5.7, 5.5 and 2.4 dSm-1, respectively and water ECw was 0.5 -0.6 dSm-1. The reduction in grain yield/plant (GYPP) in the most affected environment by salt (Serw) as compared with the lowest affected environment by salt (Gemmeiza) (64.25%) was associated with significant (P ≤ 0.01) reductions in most studied traits and a slight increase (delay) in days to heading (DTH). Heritability percentages in the broad-sense were at maximum at Sakha (2013/14) for PH, DTM, GFP and GFR and Sakha (2011/12) for NSPP, NGPS, TGW and GYPP. However, the highest expected genetic advance (GA%) from selection in the field was observed at the most affected environment by salt (Serw) for most studied traits. Traits NSPP, GFR, GFP, TGW and GYPP could be recommended as selection criteria for salinity tolerance in the field.