PHYSIOLOGICAL AND MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION OF SOME EGYPTIAN BARLEY (Hordeum vulgare L.) CULTI-VARS FOR SALT TOLERANCE

Salinity is a major abiotic stress which affecting all crops in Egypt especially in the northern part of Nile Delta. More than 30% of the total cultivated areas are irrigated by mixed or saline water. This study was amid to evaluate and clarify the adaptive response in agro-physiological and molecular aspects of 15 Egyptian available barley cultivars. The experiment was conducted during two seasons 2012/2013 and 2013/2014 in randomized complete block design with three replications under both saline and normal conditions. The results showed that Giza 123, Giza 131 and Giza 136 had the highest number of grains spike-1, grain yield, flag leaf area and chlorophyll content under both normal and saline, which were considered as tolerant cultivars. Moreover, proline content, catalase and peroxidase activities were higher in these cultivars than activities in the sensitive cultivars under salt stress. Based on molecular analysis using informative SSR markers, the data represents in total 13 fragments with high polymorphism (100%) ranged from one to four fragments per locus with fragment sizes ranged from (120 to 290 bp). Bmag0770 primer amplified specific fragment in most tolerant cultivars, which was absent in susceptible cultivars with higher PIC value (0.79%). Dendrogram based on SSR marker successfully discriminated the barley cultivars for salt stress.