response of bread wheat cultivars to salinity stress trend under greenhouse conditions

Salinity has emerged as a major threat to crop production worldwide and particularly in iran. this study aimed to assess the salinity tolerance of selected iranian wheat cultivars under greenhouse conditions. twelve wheat cultivars were exposed to various salt concentrations, including both freshwater and saline water with electrical conductivities of 3, 6, 9, 12, and 15 ds/m. yield, yield components, and some physiological traits were subjected to analysis of variance and supplementary analyses. the anova results revealed that all the characteristics demonstrated different responses, and their interactions with cultivar and treatment were statistically significant (p lt;0.01). in response to increasing salinity levels, yield and yield components were negatively impacted while na^+ in leaves and electrolyte leakage increased. the cultivars bam, kuhdasht, pishtaz, and aflak outperformed the others in terms of grain yield and electrolyte leakage, indicating their tolerance to increased na+ concentration. however, the results also suggested that an increase in na^+ or a decrease in k^+ ions led to a decreased yield in all cultivars. therefore, na^+ and k^+ cannot exclusively describe the yield response to stress conditions, and their behavior is beyond na^+ and k^+ processes or their ratio. overall, this study demonstrated that the evaluated cultivars are significantly diverse, and they can be used in crossing methods to extend the range of salinity tolerance in wheat germplasm.