19 Journal of Wheat Research 8(1):19-24 Homepage: http://epubs.icar.org.in/ejournal/index.php/JWR Research Article Differential response of selected bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) genotypes for salt tolerance by using multiple parameters Sanjay Singh 1* , Rakesh Singh Sengar 1 and Neeraj Kulshreshta 2 1 Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Meerut-250110, Uttar Pradesh, India 2 ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Karnal-132001, Haryana, India 1. Introduction Salinity is one of the major factors reducing plant growth and productivity worldwide, and affects about 7% of world’s total land area (Flowers et al., 1997). Percentage of cultivated land affected by salt is even greater with 23% of the cultivated land being saline and 20% of the irrigated land suffering from secondary salinization. Furthermore, there is also a dangerous trend of a 10% per year increase in the saline area throughout the world (Ponnamieruma, 1984). In India, about 6.73 million hectare land area is salt affected and out of which 3.77 and 2.96 million hectares are under sodicity and salinity, respectively (Mondal et al., 2010). Wheat is the second most important crop after rice in India and occupies approximately 28.5 million hectare area. According to some estimates by FAO (2006, 2007) and Rosegrant et al. (2001), the global wheat production must increase by at least 1.6 percent annually to meet a projected wheat demand of 760 million tons by 2020. In order to achieve this goal it is not only important to increase genetic yield potential of varieties but also incorporate biotic and abiotic stress tolerance genes. Improving wheat productivity will be essential to meet the growing demand for food under shrinking cultivable land area. It is imperative in this context to look for tools not only to increase the crop productivity but also ensure protection against loss of potential productivity due to environmental vagaries (Kumar et al., 2012). Improving salt tolerance of wheat genotypes has been hampered by a number of factors, such as the lack of effective evaluation methods for salt tolerance to screen the genotypes in breeding programs, low selection effciency using overall agronomic parameters and a complex phenomenon involving morphological, physiological and biochemical parameters among genotypes (Zeng et al., 2002). Compared with conventional techniques that score and rank salt tolerance genotypes based on single parameter, some success has already been realized by using multiple agronomic parameters simultaneously at different growth stages (Shannon, 1997; Zeng et al., 2002). An appropriate statistical method is needed to analyse multiple agronomic parameters simultaneously to facilitate ranking of genotypes for salt tolerance (Zeng et al., 2002). Cluster analysis is commonly used multivariate statistical technique suggested for comparisons of genotypes Article history Received: 27 October, 2014 Revised : 19 December, 2015 Accepted: 29 December, 2015 Citation Singh S, RS Sengar, and N Kulshreshta. 2016. Differential response of relected bread wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.) genotypes for salt tolerance by using multiple parameters. Journal of Wheat Research 8(1):19-24 *Corresponding author Email: sanjaydbtster@gmail.com @ Society for Advancement of Wheat Research Abstract The aim of the present study was to identify new sources of salt tolerance on the basis of relative performance of multiple parameters with respect to salt tolerance indices at 10.0 dSm -1 in wheat. Ten bread wheat genotypes were evaluated in pots following completely randomised design for salinity tolerance (EC iw =10.0 dSm -1 ) imposed 21 days after sowing (S1) and at the time of sowing (S2). In the present study Kharchia65, UP1109 and K9423 were found to be the most tolerant while HD2009 and AKAW4627 were salt sensitive among studied genotypes according to cluster analysis based on relative salt tolerance indices of multiple parameters. The differences among genotypes of bread wheat refected important genetic variability under salinity, which can be further explored and used for the wheat breeding programs. Cluster analysis with multiple agronomic parameters simultaneously can facilitate rankings of salt tolerance of wheat genotypes. Keywords: Salinity, bread wheat, salt tolerance indices, sodium, potassium