Salinity tolerance of lentil genotypes based on stress tolerance indices

Abstract

In order to identify genotypes for salt tolerance and to investigate the relationship among several salt tolerance/resistance indices a randomized block design with three replications was conducted under normal (0.0 mM NaCl) and saline (40mM NaCl) conditions during seedling stage in petridishes using ten lentil genotypes in laboratory condition where temperature was 24±2 0C. The experiment was terminated on 8th day and observations on dry weight of seedlings were recorded after drying in hot air oven at 65 0C for 48 hours. Various stress tolerance indices viz., TOL, SSI, STI, MP, GMP, YI, SSPI and MSTI were calculated to screen the genotypes for salt stress tolerance.The results of pooled ANOVA showed that the genotype (G) environment (E), and genotype × environment (GxE) interaction effects were highly significant for seedling dry weight. The E effect was the most important source of dry weight variation and accounted for 51.65% of total sum of squares (TSS). The mean dry matter yield/dry weight of genotypes decreased under stress condition. On the basis of dry matter yield and stress indices the genotypes SAPNA, RLG-258 and RLG-234 were identified as the most salt tolerant genotypes. The indices STI, MP and GMP exhibited good correlation with dry matter yield under both the conditions therefore selection should be based on these indices in salinity tolerance programmes.