Salinity affects flag leaf chlorophyll and yield attributes of rice genotypes

Abstract

Four rice genotypes Binadhan-8, PBRC-37, NERICA-1 and NERICA-10 were evaluated under four levels of salinity, i.e., control, 6, 9 and 12 dSm-1 to understand their effects on flag leaf chlorophyll content and yield attributes of these genotypes. The experiment was established under polythene shade to avoid rain water in the pot yard of Crop Physiology Division, Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture, Mymensingh. NERICA-1 produced the highest grain yield hill-1 due to higher number of panicle hill-1 , panicle length and 1000 grain weight against salinity (average of 0, 6, 9 and 12 dSm-1) which was followed by PBRC-37. The interaction effect of different levels of salinity and genotypes on different parameters (effective tillers hill-1 , filled grains hill-1 and grain wt. hill-1) decreased slowly from control to 9 dSm-1 and then after it decreased sharply at 12 dSm-1. NERICA-1 and PBRC-37 were relatively high yielding at 12 dSm-1 compared to other two genotypes. Flag leaf chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and total chlorophyll content were high in NERICA-1 and NERICA-10 compared to Binadhan-8 and PBRC-37. NERICA-1 and NERICA-10 showed higher chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and total chlorophyll than Binadhan-8 and PBRC-37 in all salinity levels showed their higher chlorophyll stability against salinity. Furthermore, NERICA-1 and PBRC-37 showed salt tolerance up to 9 dSm-1 where NERICA-1 and NERICA-10 showed higher chlorophyll stability than Binadhan-8 and PBRC-37 against salinity.