Evaluating the Response of Some Durum Wheat Genotypes for Salinity Stress Tolerance Using Tissue Culture Tool

Abstract

An experiment was conducted in the Tissue Culture laboratory, which belongs to General Commission for Biotechnology, in order to study the influence of NaCl-induced salinity stress on some morphological traits of eight durum wheat varieties (Doma₁, Bouhoth₁₁, Cham₃, Bezater, Cham₅, Aghamatales, Icaverve and Icamber) in vitro. Salinity stress treatments were applied by adding different salt concentration into the growth medium (0, 50, 100 and 150 mM NaCl). The experiment was laid according to complete randomized design with 16 replications. Results revealed variation in the response of the investigated genotypes to salinity stress. Salinity stress caused significant reduction in all the studied traits compared with the control (without salt). The average length of seedlings, number of leaves, leaf area and dry weight were significantly higher the two varieties Doma1 and Bouhoth₁₁, while the root length was significantly higher in the variety Cham3 and the number of roots was significantly higher in the genotype Bezater. Results indicate the possibility of using in vitro screening tool as a rapid and effective technique in the assessment the genetic variability of durum wheat for salinity stress tolerance