Comparison of Salinity Tolerance in Geographically Diverse Collections of Thellungiella Accessions

Salinity is a serious problem all over the world with an average of 830 M ha being affected. In order to investigate the screening attributes that can be used to determine early growth stage sensitivity of Thellungiella plants to salt stress, 8 Thellungiella genotypes were grown in pots containing fine sand as growth medium and subjected to five different salinity levels, i.e. 0, 200, 300 and 400 and 500 mM of NaCl. Thirteen phenotypic and physiologic traits related to vegetative growth were evaluated for their responses to salinity stress. Co-relating the different parameters; T. botschantzevii and T. halophila shown to be more tolerant than T. salsuginea. When comparing ecotypes within T. salsuginea, Altai 1 and Altai 2 ecotypes were identified as salt tolerant, Tuva and Buriatia were classified as salt sensitive and the more popular ecotype “shandong” as moderately tolerant. Furthermore, results show that salt susceptible ecotypes treated at 500 mM NaCl had 7 folds higher proline than that of tolerant genotypes treated under similar concentration. These finding indicate the potential for selecting plants or traits with improved salt tolerance within that species. Method used allows detection plants or traits within enhanced salinity tolerance after 2 months of growth for the ability to grow at salt concentration that prevents the growth of other plants.