Breeding for Salinity Tolerance in Mungbean

Abstract

A experiment was performed at the Experim ntal Farm, Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Faculty of Agriculture, Annamalai University, Chidambaram, during the period from 06 January 2010 to 08 January 2011 to observe the response of eight parents viz., LGG 450, VRMGG Local, LGG 460, EC 30072, VRMGG 1, LGG 410, PMB 27 and VBN 1 and five hybrids namely LGG450/LGG410, VRMGG Local/PMB27, LGG460/PMB27, EC30072/PMB27 and VRMGG1/VBN1 under different salt stress (control, 4 ds m-1 (deci-Siemen per meter) and 8 ds m-1). The experiment was laid out following randomized block design where each treatment was replicated three times.All biometric characters such as number of branches plant-1, number of clusters plant-1, Number of pods plant-1, 100 seed weight, seed yield plant-1 and leaf area index; biochemical characters and biophysical characters namely total chlorophyll content, nitrate reductase activity, photosynthetic rate, transpiration rate and stomatal conductance were reduced with the increase of salinity levels as compared to control. All the hybrids recorded higher levels of salinity tolerance for all the characters compared to their respective parents except for transpiration rate and stomatal conductance. Interaction effect between the genotypes and salinity levels appeared significant for most of the studied characters. From the study it can be opined that salt stress reduced all the parameters under different salinity levels. Again among the parents and hybrids, VRMGG1/VBN1 was found as relatively salt tolerant.