Identification and Selection for Salt Tolerance in Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) Ecotypes via Physiological Traits

Authors

  • Hassan MONIRIFAR East Azarbayjan Agriculture and Natural Resources Research Center, Tabriz (IR)
  • Maryam BARGHI Agricultural Biotechnology Research Inistitute, West and North West Region of Iran, Tabriz (IR)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15835/nsb113498

Keywords:

Chlorophyll; lucerne; proline; salinity; yield

Abstract

Salt stress is a serious environmental problem throughout the world which may be partially relieved by breeding cultivars that can tolerate salt stress. Plant breeding may provide a relatively cost effective short-term solution to the salinity problem by producing cultivars able to remain productive at low to moderate levels of salinity. Five alfalfa cultivars, 'Seyah-Roud', 'Ahar-Hourand', 'Oskou', 'Malekan' and 'Sefida-Khan' were assessed for salt tolerance at the mature plant stage. A greenhouse screening system was used to evaluate individual alfalfa plants grown in perlite medium, and irrigated with water containing different amounts of NaCl. Three salt levels were achieved by adding 0, 100 and 200 mM NaCl to Hoagland nutrient solution, respectively. Forage yield, sodium and potassium contents and K/Na ratio was determined. Also, leaf samples were analyzed for proline and chlorophyll contents. The ecotypes Seyha-Roud and 'Sefida-Khan' had comparatively less sodium contents than 'Oskou', 'Ahar-Hourand' and 'Malekan' ecotypes, also potassium content increased under saline condition. Forage yield of different alfalfa ecotypes was significantly influenced by the salinity. The ecotypes 'Malekan', 'Ahar-Hourand[ and 'Oskou' were successful in maintaining forage yield under salinity stress. Sodium contents increased due to salinity in all alfalfa ecotypes however ecotypes 'Ahar-Hourand' and 'Malekan' maintained the highest leaf Na concentration. They showed higher content of K than other ecotypes but had lower K/Na ratio. It was concluded that two ecotypes 'Malekan' and 'Ahar-Hourand' were better.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

References

Alamgir, A. N. M. and M. Y. Ali (1999). Effect of salinity on leaf pigments, sugar and protein concentrations and chloroplast ATPase activity of rice (Oryza sativa L.). Bangladesh Journal of Botany. 28:145-149.

Al-Khatib, M., T. McNeilly and J.C. Collins (1993). The potential of selection and breeding for improved salt tolerance in Lucerne (Medicago sative L.) Euphytica. 65:43-51.

Allen. S. Q., A. K. Dobrenz, M. Scharnhorst and J. E. A. Stoner (1986). Heritability of NaCl tolerance in germinating alfalfa seeds. Agron. J. 77:99-105.

Ashraf, M., T. McNeilly and A. D. Bradshaw (1987). Selection and heritability of tolerance to sodium chloride in four forage species. Crop Sci. 227:232-234.

Ashraf, M. Y., Azmi, A. R., Khan, A. H., and S. A. Ala (1994). Effect of water stress on total phenols, peroxidase activity and chlorophyll content in wheat. Acta physiologiae plantarum. 16(3):185-186.

Ashraf, M. Y. and G. Sarwar (2002). Salt tolerance potential in members of Brassicaceae. Physiological studies on water relations and mineral contents, pp. 237-245. In: Prospects for saline agriculture (R. Ahmad and K. A. Malik Eds.). Kluwer academic publishers, Netherland.

Ashraf, M. Y., K. Akhtar, G. Sarwar and M. Ashraf (2005). Role of rooting system in salt tolerance potential of different guar accessions. Agronomy of sustainable development. 25:243- 249.

Bernstein, L. and G. Ogata (1966). Effects of salinity on nodulation, nitrogen fixation and growth of soybeans and alfalfa. Agron. J. 58:201-204. Blum, A. (1988). Plant breeding for stress environments. CRC Press, Boca Ration, FL.

Carlson, J. R., R. L. Ditterline, J. M. Martin, D. C. Sands and R. E. Lund (1983). Alfalfa seed germination in antibiotic agar containing NaCl. Crop Sci. 23:882-885.

Dobrenz, A. K., D. L. Robinson, S. E. Smith and D. C. Poteet (1989). Registration of AZ-GERM SALT-II nondormant alfalfa germplasm. Crop Sci. 29:293.

Epstein, E. and J. J. Norlyn, G. W. Rush, R. W. Kingsbury, D. W. Kelly, G. A. Cunningham and A. F. Wrona (1980). Saline culture of crops: a genetic approach. Science. 210:399-404.

Flowers, T. J. and A. R. Yeo (1995). Breeding for salinity resistance in crop plants-where next? Australian Journal of Plant Physiology. 22:875-884.

Flowers, T. J. (2004).Improving crop salt tolerance. J. of experimental botany. 55:307-319.

Johnson, D. W., S. E. Smith and A. K. Dobrenz (1992). Genetic and phenotypic relationships in response to NaCl at different development stages in alfalfa. Theor. Appl. Genet. 83(6-7):833-838.

Kazmeinkhah, K. (2004). Agricultural development in the saline soils of East Azarbaijan. International scientific symposium, Ganja. Azerbaijan.

Khan, M. A., M. U. Shirazi, M. A. Khan, S. M. Mujtaba, E. Islam, S. Mumtaz, A. Shereen, R. U. Ansari and M. Yasin Ashraf (2009). Role of proline, K/Na ratio and chlorophyll content in salt tolerance of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Pak. J. Bot. 41(2):633-638.

Mass. E. V and G. J. Hoffman(1977). Crop salt tolerance current assessment. J. Irrig Drainage Div. Am. Soc. Civil. Eng. 103:115-134.

McKimmie, T. and A. K. Dobrenz (1987). A method for evaluation of salt tolerance during germination, emergence, and seedling establishment. Agron. J. 79:943-945.

Monirifar, H. (2008). Determination of general combining ability with polycross test for Azerbaijan alfalfa ecotypes. Final report, project no: 101-12-81149. East Azerbaijan Agriculture and Natural Resources Research Center, Tabriz, Iran.

Monirifar, H., M. Valizadeh, R. Mohammadian, M. S. Abedi and A. O. Milani (2004). Variation for tolerance in five alfalfa cultivars. International scientific symposium, Ganja. Azerbaijan.

Noble, C. L., G. M. Halloran and D. W. West (1984). Identification and selection for salt tolerance in Lucerne (Medicago sative L.). Aust. J. Agric. Res. 35: 239-252.

Shanon, M. C. (1984). Breeding, selection and genetics of salt tolerance, pp.231- 254. In: Salt salinity tolerance in plants. (John Wiley and Sons Eds.), RC Staples and GH Toenniessen.

Siadat, H., M. Bybordi and M. J . Malakouti (1997). Salt affected soils of Iran: A country report. International symposium on “Sustainable management of salt affected soils in the arid ecosystem”. Cairo, Egypt.

Siadat, H.( 2004). Agriculture and salinity in Iran. In www.unu.edu/env/land/iran-1/02-siadatpercent20paper.doc/.

Yasar, F., S. Ellialtioglu and S. Kusvuran (2006). Ion and lipid peroxide content in sensitive and tolerant eggplant callus cultured under salt stress. Europ. J. Hort. Sci. 41(4):169-172.

Downloads

Published

2009-12-07

How to Cite

MONIRIFAR, H., & BARGHI, M. (2009). Identification and Selection for Salt Tolerance in Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) Ecotypes via Physiological Traits. Notulae Scientia Biologicae, 1(1), 63–66. https://doi.org/10.15835/nsb113498

Issue

Section

Research articles
CITATION
DOI: 10.15835/nsb113498