Phenotyping and molecular marker analysis of WH1105 and Kharchia 65 backcrosses and F4 progenies for salinity tolerance

Abstract

Soil salinity is a worldwide adverse environmental factor for crop productivity and quality in arid, semiarid and coastal areas. In India, approximately 8.5 million hectare of land area is affected by high salinity (EC [≥] 5 dS m-1). Development of salinity tolerant varieties through marker assisted breeding is most efficient and effective strategy for management of soil salinity. WH 1105 is widely cultivated wheat variety with many agronomically superior qualities but is affected by soil salinity. Two genes (Nax1 and Nax2) for salinity tolerance were introgressed from Kharchia 65 into the genetic background of WH 1105 through marker assisted backcross breeding. BC1F3, BC2F2 and F4 generations of the cross WH1105 x Kharchia 65 were evaluated for various morphological traits under initial salt stress condition. On the basis of phenotypic and genotypic variations 44 high yielding plants were selected from the cross. Out of 178 SSRs tested, 30 were found polymorphic for background selection of the foreground selected plants. Cluster tree analysis of parents and all the three generations showed that all the selected plants were inclined toward recurrent parent (WH 1105) indicating higher similarity with the recurrent parent. Four plants were selected as high grain yielding and salt tolerant. These plants could be further backcrossed with the recurrent parent to develop salt tolerant wheat lines.