Validation and Detection of Some New Rice Hybrids to Salt Stress Using Various Statistical Analysis Methods

Background and Objective: Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is crucial for Egypt’s agricultural sustainability and food security, but its cultivation is hindered by salinity stress, water scarcity and rising temperatures. These challenges are pronounced in salt-affected areas, which account for 50-60% of rice-growing regions. The present investigation was conducted to realize the feasibility of correlation, path coefficient and principal component analysis methods using three-line systems in rice (CMS, maintainer and restorer lines) for newly hybrid rice combinations under salinity conditions. Materials and Methods: The experiment was carried out during the 2022 and 2023 growing seasons at (RRTC) Farm, Sakha, Kafr El-Sheikh as well as Elsie station, Egypt. Twelve F₁ hybrids obtained from crossing three CMS lines as females with four restorer lines were evaluated along with the parents for genotypic variation. Analysis of variance was measured among rice genotypes for all traits. Results: The results revealed that grain yield per plant was highly significant positively correlated with each of panicle length, panicle weight and potassium content under normal conditions, while was highly significant positively correlated with panicle weight, spikelet’s sterility percentage, panicles per plant and thousand-grain weight under the salinity condition. The path coefficient analysis showed that the trait with the most direct positive effect on grain yield from endogenous variables appeared from the group of number of panicles (0.777 and 0.780), followed by panicle length (7.436 and 0.502) under normal and salinity conditions, respectively. The best genotypes based on salinity tolerance including the first cluster have Giza179 and GZ9399 and the crosses GAB-A/PR-6 and IR69625A/GZ9399 with best selected traits under salinity conditions such as panicle weight and grain yield. Conclusion: The promising hybrid combinations; G46A/PR6, G46A/PR5, GAB-A/PR6 and IR69625A/Giza179 could use as a good crosses.