Effect of Salinity Stress on Different Root and Shoot Traits of Selected Tomato Cultivars

Abstract

An in-vitro test was conducted at the laboratory of the Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and University (HSTU), Dinajpur, Bangladesh to screen out the tomato genotypes were screened for salt tolerance during germination. The test was conducted in the Completely Randomized Design (CRD) utilizing three replications. Ten tomato genotypes specifically BARI Tomato-2, BARI Tomato-3, BARI Tomato-5, BARI Tomato-11, BARI Tomato-14, BARI Tomato-16, Mintoo, Unnoyon, Mintoo Super and Sawsan were germinated on sand bed watered with five levels of salinity treatment i.e. 0, 4,8,12 and 16 dSm-1. The test was laid out in completely randomized design (CRD) with three replications. The days to 50% germination was maximum in Unnoyon genotype in all the treatments [1]. BARI Tomato-3 showed the minimum value in most of the cases. Root and shoot parameters like root length, shoot length, shoot fresh weight, root fresh weight, shoot dry weight, root dry weight, ratio on root and shoot fresh weight, ratio on root and shoot dry weight were the highest in BARI Tomato-2, Mintoo and Unnoyon, in contrast, the lowest performance of these traits were revealed in BARI Tomato-16 and BARI Tomato-3 at higher salinity treatment (12 and 16 dSm-1) than other genotypes in most of the cases. The overall results of the experiment exhibited BARI Tomato-2, Mintoo and Unnoyon found to be the more tolerant genotypes at higher salinity stress in respect of days to 50% germination and root and shoot characters than other genotypes.