The wheat advanced lines of the F5 generation, obtained through interspecific hybridization (T. durum × T. aestivum), incurred studies for salt tolerance in terms of morphophysiological traits and grain yield under normal and saline soil conditions. The results revealed that salt caused a significant decrease in the photosynthetic pigments, photosystem II activity, and relative water content in the leaves of advanced wheat lines. Overall, the saline stress conditions considerably affected the photosynthetic pigments in most of the advanced lines, while in some genotypes, it was relatively less. Thus, the chlorophyll (a+b), carotenoids, photosystem II activity, and relative water content were more pronounced in the hybrids Leyaqatli-80 × Mirbashir-128, Tale-38 × Kyrmyzy gul-1, Gobustan × Sheki-1, and Mirbashir-50 × Shiraslan-23 than in other hybrids. These hybrids showed greater salt tolerance. On grain yield losses in saline soil, the hybrids Murov × Daghdash, Tale-38 × Kyrmyzy gul-1, Gobustan × Sheki-1, Barakatli-95 × Vugar, Mirbashir-50 × Shiraslan-23, Gobustan × Barakatli-95, Garabagh × Mirbashir-128, and Garabagh × Shark displayed higher resistance. This resistance was for ear weight, the number of grains, and grain weight. In the future, growing these advanced wheat lines under wider saline areas as salt-tolerant cultivars can be successful.
Wheat interspecific (T. durum × T. aestivum) advanced lines, saline stress conditions, heterosis, dominance, morphophysiological traits, spike traits, productivity
The study identified the promising wheat interspecific (T. durum × T. aestivum) advanced lines for heterotic and dominance effects over better parents for yield-related traits that can help in developing high-yielding wheat genotypes.