Evaluation of the sensitive components in seedling growth of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) affected by salinity

Abstract

Salinity is one of the most important abiotic stresses in many parts of the world. Salinity reduces growth by disturbing the physiological processes. Growth of the common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is sensitive to salinity. Only seedlings that have sufficient weight and hence sufficient strength for growth can withstand the effects of salinity. Sufficient strength is affected by transmitted materials from seed and the efficiency of this transmission. In order to identify which component of the bean's seedlings is sensitive to the salinity, an experiment was conducted. The experiment tested for the effect of five levels of salinity on six genotypes of common beans. The experimental design was a randomized complete block design with four replications per treatment. Results showed that decreasing the seedling dry weight and seed reserve utilization efficiency, with increasing NaCl amount. Low levels of salinity up to 33 mM produced an increasing in seedling dry weight. The route of the changes in the weight of mobilized seed reserve and the seed reserve depletion percentage were in reverse with the seedling dry weight. These results clarity showed that seed reserve utilization efficiency is the main component (trait) for toleration of salinity. Therefore, breeding programs should be focused on the sensitive component, i.e., SRUE and the breeding of this component results in the breeding of SLDW in common bean. © 2012 Asian Network for Scientific Information.