Evaluation for Salt Tolerance in Rice Using Multipl e Screening Methods

Abstract

Screening methods that are effective in the early s tage of growth will potentially provide the largest quantity of breeding material. Although various screening methods under greenhouse have been proposed, potential effe ctive approaches must be described a good correlation with results under field condition s. This study was aimed to assess the correlations between traits obtained from four salt screening methods, hydroponic culture, soil culture, pot and field methods. Salt injury scores from the soil culture and hydroponic methods at the seedling stage under sali nity of 12 dS m -1 , were not correlated, but were able to identify the variety Pokkali as be ing a tolerant variety, and IR29 as a susceptible variety. Traits in the pot and field ex periments were significantly related to the rice varieties and salt salinity levels. The co rrelations at the seedling stage were found between salt injury score in the soil culture and p lant height, proline content of leaves and panicle length in the field experiment (r= -0.886, r= 0.992 and r= -0.933, respectively). Also, traits from the pot experiment showed signifi cant correlations with those from the field experiment. Salt injury scores obtained from soil culture method provide a simple and efficient method for indirect selection for sal t tolerance in rice. Keywords: Hydroponic culture, Na + /K + ratio, Rice, Salt tolerance, Soil culture.