Comparative Assessment of salt tolerance in five Indian varieties of Rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Abstract

Drought and salt stress are the two major abiotic determinants of plant growth and productivity. This study deals with comparative assessment of drought and salt responses of five rice varieties namely ‘Karuna’, ‘Neeraja’, ‘Thekkancheera’, ‘Rasmi’ and ‘Aryan’ under varying concentrations of sodium chloride (50mM, 100mM, 150mM, and 200mM), respectively. Germination percentage, root length and shoot length were determined after two weeks. As expected, in all the three varieties, the seed germination percentage, shoot and root length decreased with the increase in salt stress. The highest values of the aforementioned parameters were observed in the untreated controls and lowest values were recorded in the test samples subjected to 200 mM NaCl, respectively. The response of the varieties to increasing salt tolerance was in order ‘Rasmi’ > ‘Karuna’, ‘Neeraja’ > ‘Thekkancheera’ > ‘Aryan’. During the experiment, ‘Rashmi’ showed less decrease in germination percentage, root and shoot length as compared to the other varieties. These results indicate that ‘Rashmi’ variety is more tolerant to salt stress. Thus, in future, after further physiological and molecular evidences, this variety can be strategically grown as an alternative to other cereal crops, under salt-stressed environments.