Genetic variability studies for yield and its attributes under salt affected soils in wheat species

Abstract

Salinity is one of the most important abiotic stresses affecting crop yield and quality. Wheat is regarded as amoderately salt tolerant crop; wheat species exhibit high variability that can be conveniently explored to improve wheatspecies for salt tolerance. Hence, the magnitude of variability for salt tolerance was studied in wheat germplasm accessions ofthree cultivated species. High phenotypic and genotypic coefficient of variance were observed for grain yield and yieldattributes like tillers per meter, biomass, spikelets per spike and harvest index. The heritability and genetic advance over meanwere moderate to high for grain yield, thousand grain weight, tillers per meter, biomass, spikelets per spike, harvest index, plantheight, days to 50 per cent flowering and days to maturity. Thus, the present study provide valuable genetic resources for grainyield and yield parameters improvement which are associated with the salt tolerance in wheat species.