Morphological variability and genetic diversity of wheat genotypes grown on saline soil and identification of new promising molecular markers associated with salinity tolerance

ABSTRACT Eleven bread wheat genotypes grown at Siwa Oasis and Ashmon, Menofeya Governorate, during the winter season of 2016/2017 were examined for their agronomic traits under salinity stress. Owing to the differences in the salinity levels at the two locations, significant differences were noticed among the tested genotypes for all traits. Lines L2 and L4 showed the highest grain yields, whereas L3 showed the lowest. The most suitable parameters for screening stress-tolerance were tolerance indices and high-yielding potentiality. In this investigation, 33 SSR (Simple Sequence Repeat) primers led to the determination of one to three alleles per primer, with an average of 1.36. The use of 31 EST (Expressed Sequence Tag)-SSR markers led to the determination of 38 polymorphic alleles, ranging from one to five, with a mean of 1.23 per locus. A cluster analysis using the SSR and EST-SSR information divided the 11 wheat genotypes into three groups. Abbreviations: AFLP: Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism; DP: Discrimination Power; EST: Expressed Sequence Tag; PCA: Principal Coordinate Analysis; PCR: Polymerase Chain Reaction; PIC: Polymorphic Information Content; SRAP: Sequence Related Amplified Polymorphic; SSR: Simple Sequence Repeat; UPGMA: Unweighted Pair Group Method With Arithmetic Average