Molecular Evaluation and Identification of Some Barley Hybrids Tolerant to Salt Stress

<b>Background and Objective:</b> Barley is considering one of the most important cereal crops at the local and global levels. It is ranked second in terms of nutritional importance after wheat and its flour contributes significantly to bridging the large nutritional gap in the production of Egyptian bread. The aim of this study concentrated on knowing and testing the genetic behaviour responsible for salinity stress tolerance in barley as trying to improve barley crop and increase its ability for abiotic stress resistance under Egyptian conditions. <b>Materials and Methods:</b> Twenty-one crosses and ten parents of barley with different responses to salinity tolerance were evaluated in this investigation under normal and salinity conditions. Yield and its components and some physiological traits related to salt stress tolerance were the most important studied attributes evaluated in this regard under both conditions. Moreover, SSR markers were used to evaluate and identified associated markers for salinity tolerance in selected hybrids and comparing among the ten barley parents. <b>Results:</b> The final results confirmed that the three testers; Giza 123, Giza 126 and Giza 2000 besides; the crosses; Line 1XTester 1 (Giza 125XGiza 123), Line 2XTester 1 (Giza 133XGiza 123), Line 1XTester 2 (Giza 125XGiza 126), Line 2XTester 2 (Giza 133XGiza 126) and Line 1XTester 3 (Giza 125XGiza 2000) exhibited highly salinity tolerance under saline stress treatment compared with the control experiment. Among 15 analyzed barley entries, the chosen set of 11 markers amplified 20 alleles with an average of 1.81, with a range from 1-4 alleles. <b>Conclusion:</b> The results of SSR analysis and the data on valued agricultural trait loci determined the genetic distance among parents and their hybrids, which is of an unlimited rate for breeders.