Abstract
The impact of salt stress under different salinity level (0, 50, 100, 150, 200 mMol of NaCl) on ten genotypes of durum wheat namely: Werd Bled, Hmira, Bidi, Arbi, INRAT 69, Agili, Derbassi and Bayatha, Karim and Maali was conducted. Germination rate were recorded daily using radicle extrusion as a criterion. Morphological studies root length, shoot length, fresh weight and dry weight of root and shoot were also measured. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that germination rate of durum wheat genotypes was significantly affected by the salt stress. Results show a reduction of germination rate in response to the highest dose of NaCl for almost all the varieties except for Maali and Derbassi durum wheat cultivar in case150 and 200 mMol concentrations. After 6 days of germination, these lines showed germination percentage respectively of 70 and 60% against a rate of 0% for Bidi AP4 and Bayatha. For morphological traits, the effect of varieties was highly significant (P<0.01) on almost traits measured expect shoot dry weight, root fresh weight and root dry weight. Results show that all studied traits were significantly (P<0.001) reduced due to salt stress. The data showed that different level of salinity significantly affected the growth attributes by reducing root and shoot length for salinity below 50 mMol NaCl. Fresh weight and dry weight of root and shoot were reduced significantly with subsequent treatment. Key words: Durum wheat, germination, landraces, salt stress.
Highlights
Salinity, whether natural or induced, is a serious environmental stress limiting the growth and development of salt sensitive plants
The aim of the present study were i) to assess the impact of salt stress on different landraces and varieties of durum wheat at germination and seedling stage ii) to screen out best salinity tolerant durum wheat variety and iii) to assess the various morphological changes associated with the plants under different salinity gradient
The effect of salt treatment was highly significant on rate germination (Table 1)
Summary
Whether natural or induced, is a serious environmental stress limiting the growth and development of salt sensitive plants. International License (Bouaziz and Hicks, 1990; Lin and Kao, 1995) or by directly affecting the structural organization or synthesis of proteins in germinating embryos (Ramagopal, 1990). These parameters could be affected by both the ionic and the osmotic components of salt stress the relative importance of each component differs among species and even among cultivars (Dodd and Donovan, 1999; Davenport et al, 2005). Salt stress affects germination percentage, germination rate and seedling growth in different ways depending on plant species (Ungar, 2005; Gul and Weber, 1999).
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