MARKER TRAITS ASSOCIATION OF SOME BARLEY GENOTYPES UNDER SOIL SALINITY CONDITION USING SSR MARKERS

The present study was conducted during two consecutive seasons; 2009/10 and 2010/11 to evaluate the performance of some barley genotypes under salt stress and to figure out the genetic pattern related to salt stress. Twenty barley genotypes differed in their tolerance potentiality against salinity were planted in two screening field experiments at two locations; Sakha (as a control) and El-Serw (as saline condition) to detect their tolerance to salt stress. Moreover, molecular analyses were carried out using SSR-markers technique  that  could  be  associated  with salt stress. The twenty barley genotypes were planted in a randomized complete block design with three replicates; each plot consisted of a genotype planted in one row 2.5 m long and 30 cm row spacing. The other field screening experiment was executed during 2010-2011 using the same 20 genotypes at the same two locations in a randomized complete block design in bigger plots of four rows 2 m long and 20 cm apart with three replicates. In the first experiment, Egyptian barley cv. no. 2 (Giza 123) and genotype no. 12 showed the highest mean values for most of the studied traits under saline conditions, and both of barley cultivars no. 8 (California Mariout) and  no.  7  (Rihane-03) gave the highest mean values for some agronomic traits, while barley cultivars no.5 (Giza 132), no. 10 (Beecher) and no.18 showed the lowest mean performance values for most of the studied characteristics. Results from the second experiment showed that genotype no.9 (Saiko) gave the highest mean values for some traits such as heading date under saline condition. Out of the used ten SSR primer pairs, only six primers (Bmac0209, Bmac316, SCssr0397, Bmag770, HVM67 and HVHOTRI) generated clear patterns with high polymorphism. The six discriminatory primer pairs were used to evaluate the marker traits association with salinity under the saline soil, marker HVHOTRI (2H) had significant analysis with days to heading,  plant height and grain yield with specific common allele size 210 bp and the marker Bmac0209 (3H) with specific common  allele size 135 bp was specific marker for days to heading. It was concluded that those genotypes which showed salt tolerance could serve as potentially novel germplasm that could be exploited for the development of new breeding lines with high level of salinity tolerance and to accelerate genetic advancement in barley and cost efficient compared to conventional screening under saline field conditions.