SCREENING FOR SALINITY TOLERANCE IN TOMATO GENOTYPES AT AN EARLY PLANT GROWTH STAGE

Abstract

Salt stress is the most significant constraint for agricultural production in arid and semi-arid regions. This study was conducted to determine and assess the tolerance of different tomato genotypes under saline conditions. Fourteen tomato genotypes were grown in pots were assayed at three salinity levels viz., 50 mM NaCl, 100 mM NaCl and 150 mM NaCl and compared with control (0 mM NaCl). The detrimental effects of salt stress on the plants were evident with increasing doses of NaCl. Salt stress significantly decreased the shoot and root length, seedling fresh weight, leaf area, chlorophyll content and relative water content of tomato genotypes. The tested tomato genotypes exhibited different responses for salinity severity indices (SSI). In all the salinity treatments, shoot length reduction showed the positive and the highest correlation with STI. Based on the results of the experiment, the genotypes BARI Tomato-11, BARI Tomato-14, BARI Tomato-21 and Manik were found to be tolerant to salinity. Therefore, these three genotypes may be recommended to cultivate under the saline condition of Bangladesh and also may be used in the future breeding program to develop salinity tolerant tomato genotypes.