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Amro A, Harb S, Farghaly KA, Ali MMF, Mohammed AG, Mourad AMI, Afifi M, Börner A, Sallam A. Growth responses and genetic variation among highly ecologically diverse spring wheat genotypes grown under seawater stress. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2022; 13:996538. [PMID: 36311097 PMCID: PMC9614663 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2022.996538] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2022] [Accepted: 08/22/2022] [Indexed: 06/01/2023]
Abstract
Most of the freshwaters worldwide are used for agriculture. Freshwater sources are expected to decline and will not suffice to support the food production needed for the growing population. Therefore, growing crops with seawater might constitute a solution. However, very little work has been done on the effect of seawater stress on wheat, an important cereal crop. The present study aimed to determine whether particular wheat genotypes provided better resistance to seawater stress. A set of 80 highly diverse spring wheat genotypes collected from different countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America was exposed to 50% seawater stress at the early growth stage. Four seeding shoot and root traits were scored for all genotypes. High genetic variations were found among all genotypes for the epicotyl length (EL), hypocotyl length (HL), number of radicles (NOR), and fresh weight (FW). Eight genotypes with high-performance scores of seedling traits were selected. The correlation analyses revealed highly significant correlations among all traits scored in this study. The strongest correlation was found between the NOR and the other seeding traits. Thus, the NOR might be an important adaptive trait for seawater tolerance. The genetic diversity among all genotypes was investigated based on genetic distance. A wide range of genetic distances among all genotypes was found. There was also a great genetic distance among the eight selected genotypes. In particular, the genetic distance between ATRI 5310 (France) and the other seven genotypes was the greatest. Such high genetic diversity might be utilized to select highly divergent genotypes for crossing in a future breeding program. The present study provides very useful information on the presence of different genetic resources in wheat for seawater tolerance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ahmed Amro
- Department of Botany and Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt
| | - Shrouk Harb
- Department of Genetics, Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt
| | - Khaled A. Farghaly
- Department of Soil and Water Resources, Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt
| | - Mahmoud M. F. Ali
- Department of Genetics, Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt
| | - Aml G. Mohammed
- Department of Genetics, Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt
| | - Amira M. I. Mourad
- Resources Genetics and Reproduction, Department Genebank, Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK), Gatersleben, Germany
- Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt
| | - Mohamed Afifi
- Ultrasonic Laboratory, National Institute of Standards, Giza, Egypt
| | - Andreas Börner
- Resources Genetics and Reproduction, Department Genebank, Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK), Gatersleben, Germany
| | - Ahmed Sallam
- Department of Genetics, Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt
- Resources Genetics and Reproduction, Department Genebank, Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK), Gatersleben, Germany
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