PHENOTYPIC ASSESSMENT OF BREAD WHEAT GENOTYPES UNDER SALT STRESS USING MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS

Salinity stress affects bread wheat as one of the major cereal crops. Phenotyping elite bread wheat germplasm has high importance for its effective utilization in breeding programs. The objectives of the present investigation were to screen 169 bread wheat genotypes (159 elite breeding lines and 10 Egyptian cultivars), under saline soil conditions and assessing interrelationships between grain yield and yield-related traits. One experiment was conducted in two seasons; under saline soil conditions of El-Arish, Sinai, where soil ECe was 8.68 and 9.31 dSm-1 in the first and second season, respectively. A simple lattice design (13x13) with two replications was used. Principle component analysis (PCA), Genotype by Trait (GT) Biplot technique and Pearson's correlation were performed. Bread wheat genotypes recorded significant differences (p<0.01) for all studied traits under a saline environment. The promising genotype(s) were identified (No. 129 and No. 148) which had the highest grain yield. Results of Pearson's correlation indicated that the traits, spikes/plant (0.77) and tillers/plant (0.73) were strongly and positively correlated with grain yield/plant (GY). They identified promising genotypes and secondary traits could be offered to bread wheat breeders for use in future breeding programs to improve salinity tolerance.