Abstract
Soil salinity is one of the constraints of crop production in Egypt. The aims of this study were to identify genomic regions associated with grain weight and its related traits along with their salinity tolerance indices and to identify the most salinity tolerant and high-yielding genotypes. Therefore, we evaluated an advanced backcross mapping population of barley in newly reclaimed soil under two salinity levels of groundwater aquifers in South of Sinai, Egypt. We detected significant QTL associated with grain weight related attributes and the salinity tolerance index (STI) distributed throughout the whole genome of barley, which can be used to enhance salinity tolerance. Moreover, the markers bPb-3739 (4H, 96.3 cM), AF043094A (5H, 156 cM), bPb-8161 (7H, 2.22 cM), and bPb-5260 (7H, 115.6 cM), were the most important identified genomic regions corresponding to vernalization, dwarfing and dehydrin genes, which are correlated with salinity tolerance. Additionally, the doubled haploid lines SI001, SI043, SI044, SI028, SI242, SI035, and SI005 had the highest STI values based on yield average. The present study demonstrated that wild and elite barley do harbor novel valuable alleles, which can enrich the genetic basis of cultivated barley and improve quantitative agronomic traits under salinity conditions.
Highlights
Soil salinization is increasing around the world, especially in arid and semi-arid regions, mainly due to climate change [1,2], and has significant impact on agricultural productivity and sustainability [3]
The analysis of variance revealed highly significant main effects for years, salinity levels, and genotypes for all investigated traits (Table 3), and their interactions were highly significant in most cases as well
Broad sense heritability was estimated for each trait overall in the genotypes and ranged between 23.9% (HI) and 94.5% (TGW)
Summary
Soil salinization is increasing around the world, especially in arid and semi-arid regions, mainly due to climate change [1,2], and has significant impact on agricultural productivity and sustainability [3]. The River Nile is the primary source of irrigation water in Egypt; in newly reclaimed areas, especially in coastal regions, groundwater is used for irrigating certain crops [5]. Cultivated barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is the fourth most widely cultivated cereal in the world, and the main crop grown at a large scale in the North Coastal Region of Egypt, as well as in newly reclaimed areas with saline soils and a shortage of fresh water under different irrigation systems [7,8].
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