The assessment of boron toxicity tolerance in F6 RILs of durum wheat [Triticum turgidum (L.) Tell. convar. durum (Desf.) Mackey]

The identification of new genotypes tolerant to the boron toxicity is very important for the breeding programs carried out in the arid and semiarid regions of West Asia and North Africa region. This study aims to determine the genotypes tolerant to the boron toxicity in 141 F6 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) of durum wheat. 141 RILs were characterized in terms of their tolerance to boron toxicity using the parameters: 1–5 scale of symptom score, dry matter yield, biomass reduction, tissue boron concentration. The component of variance varied from 0.69 to 0.95. 22 RILs tolerant for 1–5 scale, 121 RILs ranged from moderately tolerant to tolerant for the biomass reduction, 22 RILs moderately tolerant for the tissue concentration, and 75 RILs varied from moderately tolerant to the most tolerant for the boron content. The B toxicity evaluation parameters used in this study are efficient when they are used all together, and they produced fast and reliable results. However, the principal component analyses displayed that BC, DMY (%) and BR parameters were the most effective and reliable for the evaluation of B toxicity tolerance. The RILs represented a wide range of the genetic variation in response to the B toxicity treatments. The boron toxicity tolerance could be improved by the breeding studies.