Salt Tolerance in the Triticeae: Ion Discrimination in Rye and Triticale

Abstract

When rye and triticale accessions were grown in saline hydroponic culture they exhibited the low Na and high K concentrations in their leaves which are characteristic of the enhanced K/Na discrimination trait originally found in the D genome of wheat. This trait was not consistently improved by the presence of the D genome in octaploid triticale or in D genome substitution lines of hexaploid triticale. The presence of the rye genome did not significantly affect anion concentrations within the leaves. At high salt concentrations (250 mol m⁻³ NaCl+12.5 mol m⁻³ CaCl₂) the triticales were more tolerant than the rye accessions or a DDRR-genome tetraploid, with two triticale lines being almost as salt-tolerant as barley.