Evaluation on Salt Tolerance of Local Wheat Varieties from Shandong Province at Seedling Stage and Screening of Salt-Tolerant Materials

Liu Fei; Qi-Chen Hanlin; Ru Yating; Zhao Xinyu; Yang Bangbang; Song Jian; Wu Di; Gao Rui; Zhang Yumei; Wang Huifang

doi:10.14083/j.issn.1001-4942.2025.07.006

Abstract：Soil salinization is one of the main abiotic stresses that affect the growth,development and yield of wheat.Local wheat cultivars carry many excellent genes,so screening salt-tolerant local resources is of great significance for breeding new salt-tolerant varieties and developing and utilizing saline alkali lands.In this experiment,85 local wheat cultivars from Shandong Province and DeKang 961(control)were used as materials.The hydroponic method with 1/2 Hoagland nutrient solution was adopted,and two treatments were set as control group(1/2 Hoagland nutrient solution)and NaCl group(250 mumol/L NaCl+1/2 Hoagland nu-trient solution).The effects of different treatments on phenotypic traits of wheat seedlings were studied,and the comprehensive evaluation of wheat salt tolerance at seedling stage was conducted through correlation analy-sis,principal component analysis,membership function analysis and systematic clustering analysis.The results showed that the seedling height,fresh weight,dry weight,root length,fresh weight and dry weight of roots,and relative chlorophyll content(SPAD value)of local wheat cultivars in the NaCl group were obviously re-duced compared to the control group with the coefficient of variation from 9.93％to 18.96％.The results of principal component analysis indicated that the relative fresh weight of seedlings,relative fresh weight of roots,relative dry weight of roots and relative SPAD value could be used as the main indicators for comprehensive e-valuation of salt tolerance of wheat seedlings.Based on the comprehensive salt tolerance index(D value)cal-culated by membership function method,the 86 wheat materials could be divided into 5 groups by systematic clustering analysis.Among which,Group Ⅰ included 4 extremely salt-tolerant varieties,Group Ⅱ included 5 moderately salt-tolerant varieties,Group Ⅲ included 46 middle varieties,Group Ⅳ included 28 salt-sensitive varieties,and Group V included 3 extremely salt-sensitive varieties.Randomly selecting 3 salt-tolerant varie-ties and 3 salt-sensitive varieties for comparative analysis,the results showed that the seedling height,root length,leaf SPAD value,superoxidase,peroxidase,catalase and ascorbate peroxidase activities,proline and soluble sugar contents of salt-tolerant wheat varieties under salt stress were significantly higher than those of salt-sensitive varieties,while the malondialdehyde and superoxide anion contents in leaves were significantly lower.In conclusion,the results of this study could provide a simple and accurate identification method for salt tolerance of wheat seedlings,and provide theoretical basis and materials for breeding new wheat germplasms with salt tolerance.