The flexibility of wheat and barley genomes under salinity stress and honeycomb evaluation

The aim of this study was to find genetic variability within established cultivars of barley, bread and durum wheat, after applying salinity stress for five years. Bread wheat varieties Irnerio, Generoso and Yecora, together with durum wheat varieties Mexicali81, Simeto and Bob, and barley varieties Athinais and Cannon were used. For this purpose, certified seed of the above-mentioned varieties was sown in pots containing a mixture of soils salinized by different quantities of salt. Following a certain experimental scheme that produced progressively new treatments at the same or higher salinity level and after five cycles of evaluation, there were formed new seed partitions for final evaluation under honeycomb designs. The results showed that wheat and barley genomes are quite flexible, allowing selection within variety for certain agronomic performance. Salt stress proved to be a serious stress for the health of evaluated plants (for all species) and thus, we were not able to discover genotypes exhibiting salt tolerance. Seed germination and plant yield declined rapidly at higher concentrations of salt. In spite of this, comparing two-year honeycomb experimental data, these stress conditions resulted indirectly to drought tolerance (due to the flexibility of genomes for species used), confirmed from additional data after evaluation of barley varieties in pots. The genetic mechanism for such phenotypic behavior remains to be studied