The validity of carbon isotope discrimination as a screening criterion for grain yield in two barley landraces under deficit irrigation with saline water in southern Tunisia

Mohamed Bagues; Behrooz Sarabi; Jaleh Ghashghaie; Ikbel Souli; Kamel Nagaz

doi:10.5511/plantbiotechnology.18.0502a

The validity of carbon isotope discrimination as a screening criterion for grain yield in two barley landraces under deficit irrigation with saline water in southern Tunisia

Plant Biotechnol (Tokyo). 2018 Sep 25;35(3):193-206. doi: 10.5511/plantbiotechnology.18.0502a.

Authors

Mohamed Bagues¹, Behrooz Sarabi², Jaleh Ghashghaie³, Ikbel Souli^{1

4}, Kamel Nagaz¹

Affiliations

¹ Laboratoire d'Aridocultures et Cultures Oasiennes, Institut des Régions Arides de Médenine, Route Eljoref km 22.5, 4119 Médenine, Tunisie.
² Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran.
³ Laboratoire d'Ecologie, Systématique et Evolution, Université Paris-Sud, CNRS-UMR8079, AgroParisTech, Université Paris-Saclay, 91400, Orsay, France.
⁴ Faculté des Sciences de Tunis, 2092 El Manar, Tunis, Tunisie.

PMID: 31819724
PMCID: PMC6879360
DOI: 10.5511/plantbiotechnology.18.0502a

Abstract

Arid and semiarid regions with rain shortage and scarce good quality water must make use of low-quality water for irrigation. Consequently, improved plant cultivars for use in these areas should show adaptation capacities to confer drought and salt resistance and allow the cultivation under limited water availabiltiy. The present study was conducted to determine the effect of deficit irrigation with saline water on two local barley landraces, "Karkeni" and "Bengardeni". Plants were saline-irrigated with three watering regimes during tillering, heading, and grain filling stages. Biochemical traits, carbon isotope discrimination (Δ¹³C), mineral composition, grain yield (GY) and water use efficiency based on grain yield (WUE_gy) were evaluated as performance indicators. Almost all of the studied traits (e.g. soluble carbohydrates, proline, ∆¹³C, Na concentration, and GY) were significantly affected by deficient saline-irrigation regimes at different growth stages. The hierarchical clustering analysis clearly showed that Δ¹³C placed very close to GY averaging two barley landraces, which was in accordance with the scatter plot result. Multiple linear regression performed between GY as the dependent variable and other traits studied as the independent variables indicated that WUE_gy, Δ¹³C, and soluble carbohydrates significantly explained the variability in GY (R ²=95.64%). A signiﬁcant positive correlation that observed between ∆¹³C and GY at three growth stages, indicated that ∆¹³C may be an important proxy component for indirect selection of yield potential in barley under deficient irrigation regimes with saline water. According to our result, "Karkeni" seems to be more efﬁcient in terms of higher GY, WUE_gy, proline and carbohydrate contents, K, Mg and Zn concentrations, as well as lower Δ¹³C and lipid peroxidation as compared with "Bengardeni", under low osmotic potential imposed by deficient irrigation treatments with saline water, "Karkeni" can thus be selected and used as a parent in order to obtain more tolerant plants against such stresses in future breeding programs.

Keywords: barley; carbon isotope discrimination; deficit irrigation with saline water; grain yield; multivariate analysis.