Screening of mulberry (<i style="">Morus</i> spp.) for salinity tolerance through<i style=""> in vitro</i> seed germination

Abstract

<smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="City"><smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place" downloadurl="http://www.5iantlavalamp.com/"> Salt tolerant genotypes were identified through screening of the seeds under <i style="">in vitro</i> conditions. Seeds from 43 promising mulberry genotypes were germinated on MS basal medium in Petri-plates containing 0.0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1.0, and 1.25% of NaCl (EC 5.3, 9.2, 12.7, 15.4, 20.0 and 25.4 dSm^-1 respectively). Seeds from different genotypes showed wide variability to the salinity. Seeds of English black, Rotundiloba, KPG-3, Kolitha-3, Mysore local and Sultanpur showed considerable tolerance to salinity. Wide variability on the behavior of the seeds from genotypes suggests that many genotypes are tolerant to salinity. Thus, these genotypes could be selected for further testing on saline soils under <i style="">ex vitro</i> conditions. This study offers an added scope of selecting the seedling, which shows tolerance to absolute salinity, and transplanting them through gradual hardening like other tissue cultured plants. Since screening of large number of genotypes under <i style="">ex vitro</i> conditions entails huge investment and often the interaction of other soil factors make the assessment difficult, screening under <i style="">in vitro</i> conditions is an attractive alternative, which is more easy, efficient and needs less space and time to screen large number of seeds and genotypes for salinity tolerance in mulberry. </smarttagtype></smarttagtype>