Crop species that can grow with saline (brackish) groundwater are the key to agricultural production in challenging environments of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Salicornia spp. belong to a genus of succulent, obligate halophytes that are found in coastal areas and salt marshes around the world.
Salicornia spp. are wild and not yet domesticated. Domestication traits of interest include increasing the seed size, improving the phenology by reducing the number of days to flowering and maturity, reducing seed saponin content, improving seed oil content and reducing photoperiod sensitivity.
Several Salicornia spp. were collected from seed banks or wild populations from all over the world including from Europe, the USA, and the MENA region. Breeding selections were made over two years (2021-2023) at a nursery on the western coast of Saudi Arabia. Traits such as early vigour, flowering time, time to maturation, total dry biomass together with postharvest traits such as total yield per plant, harvest index and thousand seed weight were collected and analysed. We found significant variation between species in terms of plant size, yield and phenology with the Saudi Arabia species performing best in terms of plant seed yield and biomass.
Genetic clustering of Salicornia species using SNPs identified through whole-genome sequencing revealed distinct genetic distances between Salicornia species and geographic origins. It further revealed the need to reassess the taxonomy of Salicornia europaea, with diverse sub-groups; a Southern European tetraploid group, a Middle Eastern diploid group and a group from MENA of varying ploidy.