Comparison of Salt Tolerance in Brassicas and Some Related Species

Abstract

In this paper\rthe salt tolerance in Brassicas and some related species was compared. When seedlings\rgerminated on sand cultures with liquid MS medium were considered, the relative\rgermination rate, root length, shoot length and fresh seedling weight were\rsignificantly correlated with each other (P 0.01), and only\rthe relative shoot lengths were significantly different among the tested\rgenotypes (P 0.05); When both seedlings germinated\ron MS and MS plus 0.4% NaCl were considered, only the relative shoot length of\rseedlings germinated on MS was significantly different from that germinated on\rMS + 0.4% NaCl (P 0.05), and also only the relative\rshoot lengths were significantly different among the tested genotypes (P 0.01). Raphanus sativa cv. Changfeng, B. juncea cv. JC and Brassica napus cv. ZS 10 showed low salt\rtolerance in terms of relative germination rate, root length, shoot length and\rfresh seedling weight; B. oleracea cv. JF-1, Sinapis alba cv. HN-2 showed\rhigh salt tolerance in terms of relative germination rate, root length, shoot\rlength and fresh seedling weight. Based on our result we suggest that relative\rshoot length might be convenient to rank the salt tolerance but cluster\ranalysis based on multiple parameters of relative germination rate, root\rlength, shoot length and fresh seedling weight might be more accurate in screening\rfor salt tolerance in Brassicas and related species.