Abstract:
Salt stress negatively impacts crops yield througho
ut the world. Nine varieties of potato
(
Solanum tuberosum
L.) were screened for salt stress tolerance by mea
suring
in-vitro
growth of the aerial plant parts, as well as roots.
Salt stress was evaluated by adding 25,
50, 75, 100, 125, 150 and 200 mM of NaCl to Murashi
ge- Skoog (MS) medium and
compared to MS medium without NaCl. Plant length an
d stem thickness, leaf area, roots
number, length, and thickness, and plant fresh and
dry weights were measured. Osmotic
pressure (
Ψ
medium
, MPa) and electrical conductivity (EC
medium
, mS cm
-1
) of media ranged
from −0.2 to −0.91 MPa and 5.8 to 24 mS cm
-1
, respectively. Salt stress adversely affected
the plant growth, and varieties differed in their r
esponses. Progressive reduction in the
studied parameters occurred as NaCl levels increase
d. Grouping all the varieties by
cluster analysis, based on the growth parameters re
sponse to salt stress, resulted in three
distinct groups: (1) salt tolerant group of two var
ieties, namely, Taurus and Sultana; (2)
moderately salt tolerant group of four varieties, n
amely, Loane, Diamant, Amarin, and
Sylvana; and (3) salt sensitive group of three vari
eties, namely, Toscana, Soraya, and
Kenita. The response variation of these potato vari
eties under NaCl indicated the
possibility of using them for developing salt toler
ant varieties for production in Syria.
Keywords:
In-vitro
culture, NaCl, Salinity tolerance,
Solanum tuberosum
.
