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Functional Plant Biology Functional Plant Biology Society
Plant function and evolutionary biology
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Evaluation of salt-tolerant germplasm and screening of the salt-tolerance traits of sweet sorghum in the germination stage

Tonglou Ding A * , Zhen Yang B * , Xiaocen Wei A , Fang Yuan A , Shanshan Yin A and Baoshan Wang A C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Key Laboratory of Plant Stress Research, College of life Sciences, Shandong Normal University, Jinan, Shandong, 250014, PR China.

B Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Microbial Engineering, School of Biologic Engineering, Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences), Jinan, Shandong, 250300, China.

C Corresponding author. Email: bswang@sdnu.edu.cn

Functional Plant Biology 45(10) 1073-1081 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP18009
Submitted: 7 January 2018  Accepted: 21 April 2018   Published: 17 May 2018

Abstract

Soil salinity is one of the major abiotic stresses that reduces agricultural productivity and affects large terrestrial areas around the world. Germination is the starting point of the growth and development process of all crops, and it is severely affected by salt stress. Sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench.) is one of the most promising crops that has a relatively high salt tolerance and biomass. However, few studies have evaluated the salt tolerance or screened the reliable evaluation traits of sweet sorghum. In this study, the membership function value of five traits was used as a comprehensive index for the evaluation and selection of salt tolerance in 300 sweet sorghum germplasms. After salt tolerance evaluation, 23 highly salt-tolerant, 38 salt-tolerant, 195 moderately salt-tolerant, 38 salt-sensitive and 6 highly salt-sensitive germplasms during the germination stage were screened. Moreover, the germination index under the 200 mM NaCl treatment showed the highest correlation with salt tolerance during the germination stage. This information can be used for effectively evaluating sweet sorghum during the germination stage. These results are important for the evaluation of the salt tolerance of sweet sorghum germplasms during the germination stage.

Additional keywords: salinity, salt stress, Sorghum bicolour.


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