QTLs for salt tolerance in three different barley mapping populations 2006

Soil salinity is one of the crucial factors limiting crop production. Progression of salinisation of agriculturallyarable land is mainly connected with mismanagement of water in irrigation systems, in particular under arid and semiarid climate conditions and global changes of water flow in the landscape. Selection of salt tolerant genotypes is necessary to ensure yield and to reclaim salt affected soils. The development of molecular marker(s) could facilitate the selection process. Phenotyping of mapping populations under salt stress conditions and calculation of QTLs are suitable instruments to detect markers that areresponsible for tolerance/sensitivity. However, a quantitative inherited trait like salt tolerance requires a range of adaptations, with a whole host of genes interacting with each other to produce the visible phenotype.