Identification and screening of saline-alkali tolerant peanut cultivars during whole growth stage

Abstract

<p indent=0mm>In order to improve the planting structure of coastal saline-alkali land and enlarge the growing area of peanut in the Yellow River Delta. A total of 22 peanut elite cultivars were tested in saline-alkali area of Dongying in 2016 and 2017. Nine trait indices were separately investigated for five randomly selected individuals during whole growth stage. Variance analysis, correlation analysis and clustering analysis were used to evaluate the saline-alkali tolerance of the materials and to screen saline-alkali tolerant indices. Variance analysis showed that the seedling rates of all cultivars had an obvious decrease compared with those of the control. The growth, development and yield formation were essentially inhibited by saline-alkali stress. There were great differences among tested materials based on nine identification indices. Correlation analysis indicated that RYP and RPY had a significantly positive correlation with RSDW, RMSH and RBL. Additionally, RPY was also obviously related to RSR, RRDW, and RYP. Based on the results of clustering analysis, tested materials were divided into four saline-alkali tolerance grades, in which seven belonged to high tolerant grade I, 11 to tolerant grade II, 3 to susceptible grade III and 1 to highly susceptible grade IV. Huayu 9307, Huayu 9312, Huayu 9313, 6P03, Huayu 9305 and Huayu 6303 could be widely grown in the coastal saline-alkali area as high yield cultivars. In conclusion, the results suggested that RSDW, RMSH, RSR, RYP, RBL, and RRDW could be taken as simple and intuitive indices in the identification of saline-alkali tolerant peanut genotypes.