Molecular breeding of wheat to regain unproductive salt contaminated land

Purpose and goal

The goal is to produce a salt-resistant wheat that provides good economic and environmental returns by cultivating salt-contaminated soil. In this subproject, the goal was to select strong salt-tolerant wheat lines through the use of different facilities with saline conditions, both under natural and more controlled forms. Through the tests we have achieved the goal of limiting our continued investment in salt tolerant wheat to a few lines. This allows for easier seed handling in the future, larger tests per individual line and sharper target image vis-à-vis external players.

Expected results and effects

We started with the 70 wheat lines previously selected (from cat 2000 lines) that already showed strong salt tolerance. Through trials on soil with natural salinity (Bangladesh), controlled salt conditions (Netherlands) and real-time measurements during salt stress (Australia), we have identified a top group. A compilation of collected data shows ca 7-8 lines to be considered valuable to continue to conduct in-depth studies of, e,g, identifying DNA sequences as future markers for high salt tolerance, and further for patents of the underlying gene changes.

Planned approach and implementation

We started with natural saline soil in Bangladesh (domestic wheat variety), and tested 70 lines at about 10 dS/m (Note 4 dS/m is defined as high salinity), and 20 lines passed different threshold values (e.g. germination, fungal infection, insect infestation). Follow-up control trials in the Netherlands showed 10 lines to be extra good at 8 dS/m and 12 dS/m compared to the control. Finally, real-time growth was captured in Australia at various salt concentrations, of which ca 10 lines were preliminary characterized as good at induction with high salinity.

External links

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