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Concurrence of ionic homeostasis alteration and dry mass sustainment in emmer wheats exposed to saline water: implications for tackling irrigation water salinity

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Abstract

Aims

Over the course of plant breeding asset old resources such as emmer wheat have been neglected, therefore this study was carried out to evaluate usefulness of ancient emmer wheat genotypes in tackling agricultural soil and water salinity.

Methods

Nine wheat genotypes consisting of four tetraploid (i.e. two standard durum and two emmer hulled wheats) and five hexaploid (i.e. three standard bread and two spelt-macha hulled genotypes) wheats were subjected to three irrigation water salinities (0, 60, and 120 mM NaCl).

Results

Salinity imposed adverse effects on chlorophylls concentration, net CO2 assimilation rate, stomatal conductance, sub-stomatal CO2 concentration, shoot and root dry masses, and root volume of wheat groups examined. Salt-stricken plants of emmer and, to some extents, spelt-macha wheats displayed modest stability in chlorophylls and proline concentrations and shoot dry mass despite being out-performed in terms of net CO2 assimilation rate and stomatal conductance by the durum and bread improved wheats. Na+ concentrations and Na+/K+ of leaf sheath and blade were increased in all groups of wheat, but the magnitude of the increases in emmer and drum groups amounted to twice as much of those of the hexaploid wheats.

Conclusion

Our novel finding was that the ionic imbalances and, contrariwise, dry mass stability and hence salt tolerance were evidently greater in the ancient emmer group of genotypes, compared to improved durum wheats.

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Abbreviations

Cars:

Carotenoids

Chl:

Chlorophyll

C i :

Sub-stomatal CO2 concentration

FTW:

Free threshing wheat

HW:

Hulled wheat

F0 :

Minimum Chl fluorescence

Fm :

Maximum Chl fluorescence

Fv/Fm:

Maximal quantum efficiency of photosystem II

gs :

Stomatal conductance to the CO2

LPC:

Leaf free proline concentration

LSD:

Least significant difference

PCA:

Principle component analysis

PN :

Net photosynthetic rate

RDM:

Root dry mass

RWC:

Relative water content

SDM:

Shoot dry mass

VRoot :

Root volume

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Acknowledgments

Dr. Khalil Zainalinejad and Dr. Hasan Karim-Mojeni are thanked for providing some of the genetic material.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agronomy and Plant Breeding, College of Agriculture, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, 84156 83111, Iran

    Zahra Abdehpour & Parviz Ehsanzadeh

Authors
  1. Zahra Abdehpour
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  2. Parviz Ehsanzadeh
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Contributions

ZA and PE conceived and designed the experiment. ZA performed the experiment and analysed the data. PE wrote the manuscript and ZA provided editorial advice and prepared the tables.

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Correspondence to Parviz Ehsanzadeh.

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Responsible Editor: Janusz J. Zwiazek.

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Abdehpour, Z., Ehsanzadeh, P. Concurrence of ionic homeostasis alteration and dry mass sustainment in emmer wheats exposed to saline water: implications for tackling irrigation water salinity. Plant Soil 440, 427–441 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-019-04090-1

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