Study of salt stress tolerance in spelt

World population is increasing at an alarming rate while food productivity is decreasing due to the effect of various abiotic stresses. Soil salinity is one of the most important abiotic stress and a limiting factor for worldwide plant production. In addition to its important effects on yield, salt stress affects numerous cellular activities, including cell wall composition, photosynthesis, protein synthesis, ions and organic solutes. Up to 20% of the irrigated arable land in arid and semiarid regions is already salt affected and is still expanding. Improving salt tolerant varieties is of major importance, and efforts should be focused on finding adaptive mechanisms which are involved in salinity tolerance. In this study, several spelt wheat (Triticum aestivum var. Spelta) genotypes and one cultivar of modern bread wheat were used to screen them for salt tolerance. Spelt is an old-European cereal crop currently attracting renewed interest as a food grain because it is said to be harder than wheat and requires less fertilizer. Spelt wheat is also becoming very attractive genetic source by plant breeders due to its wide adaptation ability to various stressful conditions such as soil salinity. In this study morphological parameters (e.g., leaf appearance; shoot elongation), dry matter production, mineral nutrients (especially Na and K), and activity of antioxidative enzymes were measured to select superior genotypes of spelt for salt tolerance. The results showed that Spelt genotype Sp41 is a salt sensitive genotype and genotypes Sp69, Sp96 and Sp912 are good candidates for salt tolerant genotypes.