Investigation of salinity stress effect on germination of 18 strains wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Abstract

Salinity is a major environmental stress that causes severe damage to crops and horticultural crops and also reduces plant biodiversity. In order to study the resistance to salinity during seed germination and early growth, 18 strains of wheat cultivars (Triticum aestivum L.; Including car, non-indigenous and hybrid carcasses) were investigated at four levels of control, 100, 200 and 250 mM sodium chloride. The experiments were conducted with a complete randomized block design in three replications in the research laboratory of department of Biology, University of Isfahan, 2015. The results showed that with increasing NaCl level in the culture media, germination indices were affected with more intense. Comparison of mean traits showed that different cultivars of wheat had different reactions. These cultivars were classified in two groups, so that Sorghtoghm, Hamon, Sivand, Bezostaya, Sepahan and Roshan were placed in resistant groups and Ghods, Guspard, Karaj and Navid cultivars were placed in sensitive and low dendrogram groups. Sorghtoghm and Ghods were shown to have the highest and lowest index for germination stress index (GSI) and salinity tolerance index (STI) respectively. The results showed that the different levels of salinity had significant effects on germination percent, germination rate, seedlings stem and root length, root, and shoot dry weight. All measured variables showed a significant decrease with increasing salinity level.

Keywords

• dry weight
• germination
• salinity tolerance
• salt stress
• wheat